Exhibition: a Year in Sketchbooks

What a varied and interesting year I am having! Yesterday, I went to visit a gallery called Z-arts in central Manchester, where I am hoping to have an exhibition this summer. The plan is for it to be the culmination of my year as Artist-in-Residence at the Morgan Centre. 

The timing couldn't be better: the end of my residency coincides with the 7th International Urban Sketchers Symposium which, of all possible cities of the world, this year happens to be held in... yep, Manchester. Perfect. I have been accepted to do a lecture on the residency as part of the symposium, so everything seems to be falling into place. 

We are still in the process of getting the funding together. We are hopeful that the University will give us what we need (crossing fingers). In the meantime, we have booked the space for the end of July. It is a lovely big area, divided into two sections plus a screening room. Ignore the tables and chairs in the photos - there were just clearing up from an event. 

I hope to have created about 40-50 pieces of artwork by the end of my residency, so there should be no shortage of material. 

Any regular readers to the blog will know that each piece is created as a concertina sketchbook, recording some element of the life of the students and academics at the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives. The plan is to pick a selection of these sketchbooks to exhibit, and also to blow up details and have them printed on huge AO boards, as well as a few big photos, to show the process. 

The gallery has an outside covered-balcony area too, which will be perfect for a July private view:

We have been wondering how best to mount my artwork. Each piece of my sketchbook artwork is 2 metres long, which is not something you want to glaze. I originally envisaged them opened out and flattened to the wall, but now it seems a shame to entirely flatten them out - I'd like to keep some sense of how they were created. 

I researched different possibilities and sought lots of advice. In the end, I found a really low-tech solution. Very cheap, but extremely effective - using tiny clips:

The idea is the have the clips top and bottom, running along the length of the book, nipping the artwork to the wall at the sketchbook creases. I pressed my handy technician into service and we tested the system in the studio:

We needed to be certain it would work and also that the clips would stay up. It looks great and has been up on the wall for 2 weeks now, with so sign of problems - success!

All being well, the show will go up during the last week of July, with an opening event on the evening of Friday July 29th. I'll keep you posted, but mark your diaries - everyone is welcome!