The evening of the 1st August was ‘Private Viewing’ for the exhibition and a group of friends and family were invited to attend the exhibition. This evening was the one where I expected to get the most feedback on the work in the exhibition.
The private viewing was attended by about a 1/3rd of the people I invited to the event however, the feedback was very detailed with questions being asked about different elements of the exhibition.
The public outcome for this project is an exhibition that provided an opportunity to hear directly from the people engaging with the work. Overall the people who visited the gallery were positive about the work and the narrative presented within the gallery they could associate the images with the current stage of the Brexit negotiations.
In Zone 1 people were unsure if they should or interact with the work some did press the morse key to hear the message which achieved resulted in curiosity to understand more about the work look beyond the obvious, recognising the other icons of departure which changed the way they read the images in zone two.
The photographs in zone 2 invoked different meanings for people there was a general interest in the portrait images and the structures below the piers. One person felt said the images reminded her of the pier on Coney Island. She was interested in the orientation of the pier to the water’s edge.
A number of people expressed preferences for certain images in the show. The most popular of the portrait-orientated images was the image from underneath Clacton pier which I think is particularly strong due to the orientation of the pillars and the 3-dimensional nature of the work.
There were 3 landscape images that viewers liked the most and these where two images of boats and the last image was the landscape image that I had selected for exhibition invitations. I felt that these images worked particularly well due to the blue tones and the point of focus within the image.
The images within the hang contained a number of diptychs which readers recognised as such. Though the pairing that was less obvious of Walton and Clacton piers arranged to represent arms that meet together was recognised as a message of coming together to reach an agreement.
The triptych of Southend-on-Pier framed on deckchairs achieved the desired effect of acting as a focal point to draw people into the space and generated surprise when they realised the objects framing the images. One spectator said the colours reminded her of Tokyo, though she found other elements such as the bare tree disturbing and the lights along the pier created a sense of uncertainty for the future.
