Sunday 12 June 2011

A Third Year Exhibitionist.....





It has been a few weeks now since the Third year exhibition opened. the work went up a few days before the show went live, but not without its hitches. At the very start of the exhibition week, My hopes for a quick and easy exhibition set up, were dashed. Two weeks had gone by since i ordered my Duratrans light box prints, in those two weeks i also ordered one 40x40 MDF mounted print. I later collected it from a Cardiff Print and Mounting company. I was so happy with the mounted print, that i couldn't wait to have all the work together and hung next to each other. My light box prints were being made in Brighton, all the work i had for the show was being constructed all over the country.




A violent ringing of the door bell, woke the house one morning. I twigged that it maybe my Duratrans i had ordered two weeks before. I rushed down the spiral staircase, but was beaten to it by a housemate who signed for a delivery. When i got down stairs i had a brief look at the parcel and thought nothing of it as it didn't look like what i had ordered. Alarm bells began to ring, when my house mate gestured the poster tube package to me. My heart rate dropped when from confusion, i ordered light box prints and so i thought that they would arrive in a flat package, i also thought that my photographs were printed on Perspex for the light box to glow through them. I thought they were supposed to be on Perspex and i knew that Perspex isn't thin enough to be rolled up into a poster tube,knowing i only had a few days before the show was opened to the public. 


I immediately went into a state of panic and anger. I rang my Father in my anxious state and explained to him this unbelievable mistake. I quickly phoned the Brighton based company to find out what has happened. According to them i did not specify that i wanted perspex prints and only asked for Duratrans prints. I had never worked with Duratrans before and so did not know what to expect. My father and i quickly came up with the solution of place these transparency prints in between to sheets of glass to hold them flat on the light boxes. At this point i hadn't even seen them, i went to Uni looking for a tutor to take a look at the Duratrans with me and make sure they are exhibition quality.


Off to Uni with the poster tube under one arm with a frustrated feeling inside me. I found a tutor wondering the campus and asked him for a moment of his time, he agreed to meet me and look at the prints. I used cotton gloves to carefully hold the Duratrans prints to avoid smudge marks or finger prints on the glossy surface. what was to be seen was so upsetting. I slowly placed the prints out of the tube and carefully unwrapped the tissue paper protecting them. I uploaded high res files on the companies website. the prints i received and paid for were not high res. I can only describe them to you as, areal shots of legoland or a contemporary cubist painting. It was a map of pixel city all over both the Duratrans prints. 


Angrily i knew i didn't have time to get reprints for the light boxes and come up with an alternative set of prints to put on the wall. I phoned up the company complaining, only to be bull sh***ed over the differences between screen prints and actual prints, ( if printed correctly there are no visible differences what so ever.)
In the end i had to settle for framed substitutes for the Swansea show, but promised for London i would have the light boxes up on the walls. Just recently in the past couple of days i got a new order of Duratrans from a better company, i paid out yet more money but in the end worth it. The new prints look absolutely stunning and i cannot wait to see them on the wall in the light boxes. London is getting close and i'm even more excited about it.




I have a few photographs of the Swansea show and will soon post the London photographs soon.


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