I have booked the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) for two weeks, from Wednesday, December 4th. Installation day will be on the 4th (fortunately, some friends will help). The show will open on the Thursday, December 5th, and the Private Viewing will be that evening.
The venue can support a ‘comfortable’ evening of about 50 guests.
I think it’s the perfect place for my work. BRLSI is well known and well regarded in the region, being one of the better quality venues with great light and hanging spaces. It is also nicely suited to multi-media and display of artefacts, as this video attests
Throughout my installation, the main images on the walls will be A1 sized. featuring the landscape/traces and personal quote. There is easily enough space for 12 -14 of such photographs.
In the entrance area, I envisage some form of display to show the history and context of the exhibition. At the moment there are tables and chairs there – and I think having at least one set would be a good idea.
BRLSI has seem ‘old’ standing displays, which I need to see, else I will get new ones.
The images currently on display are between A2 and A1. The ‘fossil’ sculpture is 1.2 metres wide by 1 metre high.
There are two pre-set hanging places for photographs or informational boards. They are perfectly placed, and should allow any appropriate credit (I might pursue sponsorship), and the story of the schools program.
BRLSI use plywood mounts, for environmental reasons, though I think the dibonds would also be successful, here.
The current display boards are 1 metre tall by 82 cm wide.
In the ‘second’ space, there are two display cabinets. each is 1.6 metres wide, by about 0.9 meters wide.
This suits very well, as I would like to explore the possibility of using those spaces to display slides and other materials – and possibly even a LCD display of images.
There is one wall, in the middle of the space, which could accommodate a very large (vinyl?) wall image, between two columns.
All of the smaller display cases will be removed for my installation.
There are also two ‘fixed’ upright display cabinets. The glass area is about 1 metre by 1 metre useable display space.
Frankly, these are not ideal, although they could be used to display artefacts and books.
This will need some creativity.
There are lots of opportunities for leaflets, give aways and so forth.
There is also a small glass cabinet near the entrance, used to allow visitor to pick up leaflets and signs the visitors book. The cabinet is 1.85 metres wide by 50 cm deep.
I can envisage this as a ‘book sale’ area.
Rob Randall (my BRLSI contact) is keen to get some publicity materials sooner rather than later, so they can start the process of marketing. They have a very extensive mailing list, website, as well as well established social media channels and so forth. Given the ‘educational’ nature of the show, he also offered a discount …
So, overall, I am very happy with the venue, and can see lots of creative possibilities.
As noted before, I will be exploring using video, and will do more to scope out the best way to do this.
Here is the current ‘best approach’ to the layout.
