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As part of my Gran’s exhibition, I created an installation, a ‘mise-en-scene’ if you will, with her art materials and a few of her works in progress. I thought it might be interesting to describe how (and why) I did it.
Because this exhibition was a tribute to my Gran and her creativity, I wanted it to have as much of a sense of her as possible. I thought a space that looked like she had just been sitting there would help instil the gallery with her presence.
Over the years, my gran had passed on various of her art supplies and materials to me. Significant parts of equipment in my studio – my desktop easels, wooden paint box, and wooden brush box – came from her.
She had also given me sketchbooks mostly blank except for a few drawings in them to help guide me. She passed on some unfinished pastel drawings as well and it was one of these that I selected to display on the easel, along with the pastels she used to draw it as she’d given me those too.
She had also passed on the books that she’d learned from. There was no internet when she was studying art, so she learned from books, TV shows, and occasional in-person local art classes. Because of that, her books really were a significant influence on the kind of art that she learned to make.
It felt important to include all these elements to give a rounded sense of her as an artist – her in-progress artworks, the supplies she used to create it, and the materials that she had learned from.
To further expand the sense of her as a person I knew I wanted to include flowers. Ever since I can remember, Gran always had flowers on her windowsills. Fresh, dried, or artificial, they were a constant presence for the decades that I visited her.
And the last detail I added was one of her knitted cardigans. Gran was a fan of the knitted twinset, and I can’t imagine her at home without a knitted garment on. I have a number of her old cardigans, and so as a finishing touch I draped one over the back of her chair, to make it look like she had just been there.
The Leith Makers gallery is accessed via a staircase, and when you reach the top of the stairs, you face a window that overlooks Leith Walk. I chose the spot right in front of the window for three reasons. Firstly, it’s one of two spots in the Gallery with the best light, and light is so important when making art. If she had actually been working in that space, there’s a good chance it would have been there.
Secondly I chose it because it is one of the first things your eye lands on as you reach the top of the stairs. I wanted that visibility, especially as this was a physical embodiment of my gran’s presence.
And lastly, for practical reasons, it made sense to put it by that window as locating it by the other window would have made circulating around the exhibition space awkward.
It’s the first time I’ve gone about creating an installation, and I have my daughter to thank for the arrangement and selection of some of the materials. She put everything together in such a beautiful and natural way, I’m so proud of her. She did her great-grandmother proud.
Exhibition Blog series:
