Installation

One final process of art production is the installation of work for an exhibition. I personally find this final stage of installing my work in a gallery, museum, artist-run-space, or whatever space I can utilize such as a coffee shop (which has great exposure due to high traffic) to be one of the more rewarding steps! It feels incredible to be finally done with a piece and actually install it myself and then to see the final product in front of me as it will be shown to the public.

And the installation of a show is another beast in itself. Where to put the work? How to arrange it? What will go where and in what order? How can I best utilize the space I've been given to bring out the most in my work? What concepts or aesthetics are at play in my work that I can translate into the exhibition space? Will I take into account the institutional aspects of the exhibition space? How will it inform my work? These are only a handful of questions artists ask themselves when thinking about the installation of their work and the space in which they are showing their work.

But for the installation of this particular group show, we focused on the basics. Andrea and Nico, two of the exhibiting artist, installed the entire show. Below are photographs documenting the installation process.

First, we decided to group the photographs by artist. Next, we figured out which group of photos will go on what wall. Then for each wall, we determined the order and placement of each photograph.

Nico (front) chose this wall to display her work because of the location of the wall in relation to the store layout and also because the color of the wall compliments the colors in her photographs.

We hung each photograph so that the center of the photo is at 64". That means we measured 64" up from the floor and subtracted half the height of each photograph and that height is where the bottom of the photograph hits.

The final product: Cristian's photos are the two on the left and Nico's photos are the three on the right.

And here is a more dynamic angle of the installation.

After hanging the first wall, we got into a groove. I measured, Nico leveled to make sure each photograph was hung straight, and Andrea placed each photo.

Final product of Esmeralda's photos

Finding the placement of Christopher's photos

Andrea and Nico installing like pros now

Final product: Christopher's three photos on the left and Andrea's photo on the right

Regarding David's work, I made a curatorial decision to install them like this for two reasons: 1) space limitations (I decided to add a fourth photograph to his already three so that I can compose them like this in order to save space); and 2) the composition works to enhance both the stylistic and conceptual aspects of his photographs.