To my surprise I’ve had two messages on my facebook page expressing appreciation for the way in which the current exhibition by Unit 9 members, at the South Square Centre in Bradford, has been hung. I can’t take all the glory because this was a joint effort by Brian Rowlands and myself. I almost take for granted, even as an artist, that an exhibition will be presented well, although I can recall occasions where, even in important galleries, the way things have been hung has annoyed me.
In order to hang an exhibition well a good deal of thought has to go into the task. One of the things that can be wrong, even where the shows been hung professionally, is the height of items. It is hard to make comfortable views who are short as much as those who are very tall. Signage can be helpful or distracting. Relationships between items and groups of items can be suggestive and helpful or arbitrary and confusing.
There are particular problems often with group shows, where all the contributors expect all of their own work to occupy prime positions, and in a “salon-style” show decisions about leaving material out in order to avoid overcrowding can be a sensitive matter.
Next time you go to an art exhibition (whenever that might be in the current pandemic) pause to spare a thought for the curator. It was nice to be noticed for once.