Forms and Functionality

Exhibitions of "Body Landscapes" 2014

 Blackpool Exhibition
Blott Studio and Artists Collective
29th November - 12th December 2014

  As I worked as a volunteer, staffing the gallery Corrine Streetly, the gallery owner, agreed to give me a solo exhibition.  She particularly liked the work in "High Heels Hurt" that I did in 2012, and requested that it form part of my exhibition. The artist statement is below.
four pairs of images in exhibition at

Blott Studio



HEAD TO TOE

This photography exhibition is a combination of two social documentary projects that were inspired by the hurt suffered, and hopes to challenge the viewer’s perceptions of these issues.

HIGH HEELS HURT!

High heels are sexy! 
High-heeled shoes have an erotic allure for both men and women – they see the shoes as desirable and beautiful.

Women have been influenced for millennia by cultural and peer pressure to change the appearance of their feet.  Women who wear high heels often don’t feel properly dressed without them, and yet few women can wear them for long periods of time without pain and suffering. 

Do high heels subjugate or empower women?
Women today assert their financial and sexual independence by making their own decisions in every aspect of their lives, including their choice of wearing high heels, although it is widely acknowledged that fashion is a male dominated world, with men designing the sexy and desirable shoes that women ‘must’ have.  So are they exchanging their hard won financial independence and freedom of choice for new male dominated power hierarchies of consumerism?


BODY LANDSCAPES

This project was inspired from my work with a teenage girl who had been sexually abused as a child.  She suffered from body dysmorphia and hated her body, to the point that she could not allow anyone to touch her.  Taking a solution focussed approach I encouraged her to think about her body as an amazing machine, and to examine tiny parts of her body to see the differences and that each part was a miracle of cells.  Her excitement at reporting back on what she had discovered meant that she could go forward with each exploration, and hopefully, lead to her taking back agency over her body. 

The beautiful abstract micro images in “Body Landscapes” attempt to challenge the viewer into seeing their body in a new way, but more importantly to suggest a form of therapy for those who suffer from body dysmorphia. 

Myra Boyle 2014 


HIGH HEELS HURT! 

Six models, aged between their early 20s to their late 60s, were shot, first in their own shoes, and then their bare feet.  Two of the models used a crutch on a daily basis.  One had a congenital hip problem and had already had two surgeries, and the other had an injury to her knee as a young teenager, and had suffered years of pain from it.  They both still wore high heels.


The 60s model has the most damaged feet, as expected.


J, above,  with her crutches, (like all the models) to support the injured knee.  Two images are superimposed over each other to demonstrate how movement is impeded (in all models) when wearing high heels.  


R with her crutch to support her congenital hip problem.





The two images above shows how each pair of images were exhibited.


Body Landscapes



As well as the images hung in the 5th Base Gallery, I needed a few more to fill the space, as this was a solo exhibition, as opposed to sharing the exhibition at 5th Base with Julia.  I chose another four images from this series, that had not yet been printed, and had them printed at 20 inch square.


 I exhibited one 30 inch square, four 20 inch images and the other eight smaller 14 inch square images.  This worked very well as the large image was placed in the window along with the poster below, the four 20 inch images were placed along one slightly recessed section of the wall, while the smaller images were curated into two sections: 3 of the darker images together, and the other 5 images together.  






In addition to hanging my work I also needed to dress the window with a date appropriate theme, i.e. Christmas.  The decorations were minimal, and the colours worked with both the large image hung in the window along with the poster I created for the event (public viewing).  See attached images 





I used two images for this purpose, one for the Private Viewing on 29th November and another for public viewing.  I incorporated the Blott Logo, and used "Fabada" font www.dafont.co.uk for the majority of text on the poster.  I chose colours of text that I felt worked well with the images, and differentiated each poster's details.  Corrine asked me to include a Trigger Warning related to some of the copy on the artist's statement for "Body Landscapes", which I did. 
The exhibition was advertised through my Facebook Page, where I set up an Event with an invitation list to those of my friends whom I though may be interested, and were local.  It was also advertised through Blott's posting list as well as the Facebook Page and the website www.blott.co.uk . 

Luckily,  Moo.com have started to produce square business cards so they were ordered, and leaflets were produced for the exhibition and were made available to viewers.  A leaflet drop was made to local libraries.  

Evaluating the Exhibition


Refreshments were available for the opening night, which was exciting.  It was fairly busy during the opening hours, with people coming and going on a regular basis, and a few people were drawn in from the street to view my work.  I had many positive comments about the work, and visitors understood the significance of my intentions.  Corrine had arranged for a critic to be present to produce an article for Art Blackpool, but he did not discuss my work with me.  

One visitor, during the week, made a constructive comment that I had not considered, i.e. that as well as offering photo-therapy for victims of sexual abuse, the approach I took in my photography might also act as a therapy to change the way abusers see their victims as an amazing body, rather than as a sexual object to be abused.  Another visitor was deeply affected by "Body Landscapes" as it led her to see analogies with a situation of cyber bullying that touched her life, and to understand the notion of conceptual art.   Other comments:

"Unusual, interesting, intriguing and I shall be back to look some more." (Unreadable signature)

 "Magnificent exhibition - very thought-provoking and beautifully produced photography" by Clive Bannder, Poulton

"Up close and personal. from the microscope of global concerns, these images are thought-provoidng and even alarming.  The artist's on-site explanations are enlightening and very welcome as commentaries of these unexpected, unsettling images of the physical world." Lynn C.

"The multi-farious nature of photography is often overlooked.  The most mundane images often disguise a complex narrative. Myra's use of photography as a medium of social commentary may not be everybody's cup of tea, but this is a powerful body of work which takes the mundane and the unacceptable, giving an opportunity for social comment. Well done." Alistair Parker 11/12/14

One follow-up from this exhibition at Blott Studio is that the owner of apartments ( The Berkeley Apartments (AA****) on Queen's Promenade) and a hotel who exhibits some of the other artists' work, has asked to look at my other work, that might be suitable to exhibit in the lobbies of his multiple buildings.

In exchange for giving me a solo exhibition Corrine asked me to research arts funding for the gallery, which was good experience if I choose to request funding for an individual project.

LONDON EXHIBITION
5TH BASE GALLERY, 7th – 13th August 2014


www.5thbase.co.uk   





I asked a fellow student if she would like to join me in hiring 5th Base Gallery for a week, to allow me to share the costs and curating skills of exhibiting our work .  Julia’s work is very different from mine, as Julia has used large format and printed in black and white, but as one visitor commented, they worked well together, as both projects could be described as ethereal.  There was some consideration of which project to exhibit, to work with Julia’s “Timeless Skye”, and I agreed with Julia’s suggestion that it would be more cohesive if I exhibited my “Body Landscapes” with her “Timeless Skye”. 



We needed to find accommodation in London, which was not difficult, although the prices were prohibitive, so I only stayed in London for two nights, spending the rest of the week at my daughter’s in Surrey, travelling by tube and rail.  Julia stayed in London for the whole week.

We met James, gave us two sets of keys to the gallery, on the evening prior to setting up, and opening on Thursday, 6th August, 2014.   

On Thursday morning Julia and I met to hang our work.  There had been a logistics problem as James informed Julia that I could not stick Velcro directly onto the walls.  Julia decided not to tell me until she had found a solution, which was to cut a small piece of Velcro about 4 inches long to fit onto each of the corners, thread two screws through this small piece and fasten them to the wall, without removing the backing so it did not stick to the wall.  The Velcro on the back of the images was then attached to the smaller piece on the wall, which had been carefully measured. 
   

Julia’s skills of hanging also came in useful as she had given me her toolbox etc, along with her work to transport.  Julia helped me to hang my work, as well as her own. 

    “Body Landscapes” by Myra Boyle




   “Timeless Skye” by Julia Rushton





“Landscape, Body and Soul” exhibition in 5th Base Gallery, ready for opening


Publicity

I had designed a very colourful poster for the publicity material,





but Julia’s design was much more tasteful in black and white, with only a little red in the gallery’s logo, which was printed A3 size, so we used that.



5th Base Gallery requested dpi images of our work, along with our artists’ statements, that they posted not only on their website but also their Facebook Page, and placed it in the Wall Street International, Re-Title, ArtWeek, Rabbit Art, as well as to their mailing list.  Julia and I posted on our Facebook Pages, and Twitter so that friends and acquaintances could see our plans. 


Other Twitter Posts can be found at https://twitter.com/nolan1921


5th Base Gallery posts exhibitions on both its website www.5thbase.co.uk and its Facebook Page, as below:


This is a rolling gallery of images from both my and Julia’s work and can be found online at: http://www.5thbase.co.uk/#!previousexhibitions/ciy4 

Two of my images, and two of Julia’s can still be seen, along with others, in the copy of the Photos Page from 5th Base Gallery’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/5thBase




Opening Night


 We were very excited to discover that, not only had our exhibition appeared on Whitechapel listings, Whitechapel Gallery chose us as second, on their monthly gallery tours, where they escort a group of people round four galleries on the first Thursday on each month. 




This brought many people into the gallery, as well as others who had seen our exhibition advertised on 5th Base’s website and Facebook page, as well as on Rabbit Art, ReTitle and Wall Street International (an international art publication). See attached)

The night we were so busy and had so many visitors to the gallery that we did not have time even to take a phone shot of the crowd.  However, I have copied an image from 5th Base Facebook Page that shows how the gallery looks with a crowd at another exhibition, and our opening night was just like this.





Julia and I spoke to many interested, interesting and knowledgeable people on the night, with visitors from London, and further afield, with some visitors from Europe.  One young woman of sixteen, from Derbyshire, had persuaded her mother to bring her to see my work, as she was doing an Anatomy project at the cellular level.  She loved the images and bought 4 of my small test prints.  She also loved Julia’s work and took our business cards and postcards with our contact details.

Sales
I sold 4 small test prints for £10 (my very first sale)
I had determined that I would have sold the large mounted print for £300, and the smaller ones for £100, and that if I had sold them all I would raise £1050 which would cover my expenses. 



What I would do Better

Even though I had insisted we have a Visitors’ Book at the Graduation Exhibition, I had not brought one to this exhibition, which was very short-sighted, as following the opening I received an e:mail from one visitor who spoke very highly of both my and Julia’s work, but noted we should have had a Visitor’s Book to record names and contact details for future work. 




While we had a large number of visitors on Opening Night, there were much fewer visitors on the subsequent days, and only one person on our last day, Wednesday, 12th August.  We needed to have publicity material on Brick Lane at the entrance to Heneage Street, along with a person touting for us, as it would have been more visible than the publicity material we placed at the entrance to the gallery. 
So when Diana suggested we have a larger, more colourful poster to attract people, we had no means of producing another poster at that time as mine was on my computer, which I had not brought. 

Julia and I had agreed that we would both be present on the Opening Night, and to take turns invigilating the exhibition on successive days, and this was appropriate in relation to the number of visitors the exhibition attracted.  However, perhaps if we were both in attendance one of us could have been positioned on the corner of Heneage Street and Brick Lane at attract more visitors. 





EVALUATION OF EXIBITION

My research skills paid off in finding the small 5th Base Gallery, in the arty Brick Lane area of East London, which was within my budget.  The building also held a fashion designer, a clothes manufacturer and an eclectic artists’ collective (of whom we met and spoke to some of the people).

I loved the little gallery, which I felt was a great space to exhibit, and also was well planned with acceptable facilities, even if it was just off Brick Lane and we had difficulty in bringing visitors in after Opening Night.  The owners, Diana and James, were very accommodating and helpful.

While we did not sell any work (apart from my small test prints) and the financial cost was expensive for my budget, I still feel it was worthwhile to have had a London Exhibition in the arty Brick Lane area.  We both had very positive feedback from our visitors, and thoroughly enjoyed engaging with them.  Most of our personal publicity material, i.e. business cards and postcards, were taken, allowing visitors to contact us.  There was a real buzz of excitement on Opening Night, which we were delighted with.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole venture, but am unsure if I will ever be able to afford to do it again.


Myra Boyle (September 2014)




EVAULATION OF FORMS AND FUNCTIONALITY

Career and Post-Graduate Decisions

As I am already in my 60s I am not looking for a career in Photographic Media, much as I have enjoyed my studies.  Equally, as I already have a post-graduate degree in English Language I am not interested in doing a further degree, especially as I am self-funded and the cost of higher education has escalated in the time since I began studying the Foundation Degree. 

However, this does not mean that I am not ambitious, as I would like my work to be seen by others.  As for sales of prints or images, the financial aspect of this does not interest me, although it would be very nice if someone wanted to buy my images.  I have been approached to do two photo-journalistic shoots in the summer, i.e. 1) photograph the opening ceremony of the Highland Games and the celebrity guest Susan Boyle, who is opening the Games; and 2) to photograph the ceremony of exchanging the baton for the Commonwealth Games 2014, as it travels through the town of Bathgate.  I have not yet agreed, but am considering whether to take the commissions or not.  I have also perhaps foolishly agreed to lecture for the online stock library company (PYMCA) who have published my youth culture work. 


This is the point I need to consider my strengths and weaknesses, so I did a simple SWOT analysis.




It is obvious from this that there are far more strengths and opportunities are far greater than my weaknesses and threats, which gives me the impetus to carry on, so what are my successes and where to go from here.

Galleries

I have already exhibited in several local areas:
1.            The BMW showroom where I have three images that have been on exhibit for the
last two years, one of which won an combined competition between Blackpool & the Fylde College and BMW to integrate the concepts of BMW and The Olympic Games in London 2012.
2.            Blackpool & the Fylde College, internal graduate show.
3.            The Cube, Manchester for the FD and BA graduation show.
4.             As a member of Fylde Community Arts Project I have organised a photography
           competition for the past four years, and exhibit during this time.
5.            As a member of Poulton Photographic Society my work has been exhibited in the
           annual exhibition for the last three years.


To promote my Professional Practice project “Body Landscapes” I have made several enquires to galleries in London and wider, including:

·             Free Space, Kentish Town Health Centre, London (see p11/12
·             The Lucky Jotter, Blackpool (see 13-14)
·             Meniere Gallery, London (see p18)
·             5th Base Gallery, London (see p 19-20)
·             Brick Lane Gallery, London (see p 21)
·             Zelda Cheatle (see p 22)
·             Blott Gallery, Gallery and interview with owner (see p24)

Online Presence
The World Wide Web has transformed every aspect of our lives in the western world, including business and art, and in particularly photography.  It is the ideal medium on which to promote photographic images as software has been designed to meet this need.  Some of my work on young people, shot at the Rebellion Festival, Blackpool, has been accepted by PYMCA, an online stock library based on Youth Culture (see p23).  I have also applied for acceptance of “Body Landscapes” to http://www.socialdocumentary.net , which has a broad range of social documentary projects. 

I have a personal online presence on Facebook: Myra Boyle Photography  www.facebook.com/pages/myraboylephotography  where my projects are uploaded as they are completed (see p.36-38).  I have also begun blogs this year on http://myraboylephotography.blogspot.co.uk    and http://myraboylephotographertumblr.com   for evaluation by tutors, who need extensive work in order to evaluate the whole development of the project.  However, I feel there is too much information on these sites for the general viewer, so I will develop a further blog simply uploading my artist’s statement and final images for each of my projects, as those outside of the academic world do not want to read all of this.  When doing a search they don’t want to read masses of material, rather they want to read on minimal cues, as suits the internet, and if they want more information they can contact me directly. 

Further Research
Hanging systems for gallery exhibitions (see p 25-26) which we may need for the graduate exhibition, although we are informed that they will not be needed.  As my images are mounted on Foamex (by Loxley Colour Printers, Glasgow, who also printed them) as I did not want to have a frame around them I will need to consider how to hang them and the solution might be to have battens attached to the walls with the images hooked onto the battens.

Printers
I researched those printers recommended by tutors ,i.e. Jack Lowe, The Print Space as well as recommendations by others: Digitalab, Paul Graham and Loxley Colour (where I had the “Body Landscapes” project printed and mounted.  The prices and services were similar in the best printers, and as I have developed a relationship with Loxley Colour, and their prints are very good quality, I will continue to use them.  However, I have sent for a sample of their art papers for consideration for future printing needs.

Guerrilla Shoot
I conducted a guerrilla shoot with my FIA project, although could do the same with the Professional Practice project “Body Landscapes” as this would elicit strong audience responses  (see p 27-28)

Other ways of promoting my work
My Business Package has been updated once again to reflect the work I have done this year, so I now have both business cards and appointment postcards which I can give to people I meet; or in an exhibition of my work, in support of an agreement or contract such as the commissions above.

Summary

It is unlikely that I will take a post-graduate course, or look for employment as a photographer.  I will though carry on photographing what interests me, i.e. portraiture, as I like photographing those people I find interesting; and social documentary work as I have a strong political conscience and photography is a great way of presenting my view on issues that interest me. 

I have some opportunities and I need to decide whether I want to accept them, but I know my confidence is low in regard to technical skills, and some skills I have not developed at all this year, e.g. colour balancing my images and printing my own work.  I have also not produced any film work this year, but a recent purchase of a medium format camera with a range of lenses, will allow me to pick this up again, and continue to develop my film work, but probably on my own projects.  I do question whether I have the motivation to do this without a deadline and academic evaluation behind me though. 

What I do know is that my future photography will be for my own pleasure, and I hope to share my successes.


Myra Boyle

May 2014

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