Portfolio Week 1: Field trip to Wallace Arts Centre, Pah Homestead.

Find three different works and talk about the presentation.

1) Allan McDonald- The Unstable City.
How does the presentation affect the way you view the work?
- With the images pinned on separate sheets, it makes it easier to view the works one by one. The way the works are hung works really well for this kind of series. With so many different photographs, it would be hard to present the works so neatly any other way. There is no hindrance in viewing the works either, if they'd all been put behind glass, they'd be a lot harder to view. With them hung the way they are, you can see all the little details in the work and can properly appreciate their beauty.

Would you use this type of presentation for your photography and why?
-Definitely, it's neat and tidy. There's no boarders or frames to distract the viewer, no glass means there's no glare or reflection. It's a very clean way to present photographs.

Is there anything you would have done differently?
-What I don't like is the gaps, where only one photo was printed on the page. There was no consistency to the gaps, they just appeared random and out of place. I think it may just be me and the way I think, but the inconsistency in these gaps really got to me.


2) Stephen Ellis- The Anchor Drags, 2014.
How does the presentation affect the way you view this work?
-The clips were an unusual way to present the work, but having it behind glass probably would've ruined the effect it had. Having the work hung right there, you could see all the detail and texture to the work. It was incredible and the clips didn't distract the viewer either. I hardly noticed them until I was actually looking at the way the work was presented.

Would you use this type of presentation for your photography and why?
-If I was doing a snapshot style I guess using clips could work, it's not exactly as tidy as I would like though. So, probably not, it is an interesting and very different way to present an artwork.

Is there anything you would have done differently?
-I think, clips aside, a plain white canvas around the work would have worked well as well. The clips do make it an interesting presentation style though and made the artwork stand out from the rest, so no, in terms of the way it was presented, it was presented really well and I wouldn't change it.

3) Carolyn Williams- A pause of Suspension, 2014.
How does the presentation affect the way you view this work?
-The presentation of this work immediately caught my eye when I walked into the room. As someone that loves words and art, it was really interesting to see words presented in such an artistic yet very different way. I loved how the words hung on the ribbons and I don't think it would've had such an impact if it'd been presented in any other way, especially the angle the words were on.

Would you use this type of presentation for your photography and why?
-I'd definitely use this kind of presentation, it was unusual and different from every other work I looked at. It reminds me of Annette Messager and the way she hung her photographs in various shapes using strings.

Is there anything you would have done differently?
-No, I really do like this artwork and presentation wise, it's amazing, it's creative and fun while still appearing tidy and presentable. The font was a little hard to read, but at that angle of course it was going to be a little difficult. One thing I'd be very conscious of, is that the ribbons would have to be the same distance apart.