Fourth Time Around

Been a lot of preparations for this, but today was finally the day to install the Fourth of July.   This is the fourth exhibition of the whole set, not including its residence in my Carbondale studio as I was making it.  There are two complete copies of the series- first proofs printed as diptychs (just like the blocks themselves), and a better printed set in which each panel was trimmed to the borders.  The latter set was used in the first two exhibitions, each time the prints were mounted to a hard backing that was then put on the wall.  At University of Illinois I had it attached with tape hinges to foamcore panels, so I could attach those with adhesive to a large brick wall.  When I arrived at the site and found the brick wall had a number of protruding outlets, power strips, and thermostat boxes (the U of I organizer didn't notice these until I showed up), but I solved the problem by cutting donut holes in my foamcore pieces to fit around the obstacles.  The second show was my MFA show, for which I mounted them on painted lauan plywood panels, bolted together and hung on the wall as a single unit.  Those prints remained on the panels until last year, when I salvaged them as part of cleaning out my parents' basement.  The third exhibition was put together on short notice for one of the galleries at Kean Univeristy, and I just tacked the first proof prints to the wall.  Looked pretty good.  I considered both sets of prints when preparing for this show, and decided to go with the option of the first proofs and the push pins.

I had made various measurements of my destination wall since our first meeting about this show.  It's a big wall, but also having some obstacles to work around.  I spent a lot of time trying to work out in advance possible configurations for prints, but the dimensions I had to work with did not allow for an even rectangle layout.  That's okay- the piece is modular and variable and I've gotten used to arranging it around stuff on the walls.  My upper limit would be an aluminum rail permanently attached to the wall (a track holds an adjustable wire hanging system used to hold framed works), which cut off some potential wall space, but gave me a perfectly level edge to work with.  There would be three sets of electrical outlets within my planned layout, and to make sure of where they would work within my grid, I started by hanging three plumb lines from the rail down to the edges of the outlet covers.  That way the grid that I'd be starting at the top would line up properly when it reached the outlets five feet below.  The photo up top shows the beginning of the hanging process.

Getting the top row in place took a whole hour.  Part of that was climbing up and down the ladder constantly, and part of that was that there are a lot of irregularities in the blocks over the first month of the series.  When I started the series I wasn't thinking about displaying the diptychs, so spacing between the panels wasn't completely uniform, and top and bottom margins also varied.  I checked each diptych for level, and then used a longer board to verify level along 3 or 4 diptychs.  The bottom edges of that first row had the same issues, so lining up the second row had similar complications.  I used the ladder for the third row as well; I could have reached it from the ground, but it made it easier to check that the panels and rows were level.  After that I could pin them up standing on the floor, and I could finish the rows in 15 to 20 minutes each.  All together it took about 5 hours to get the whole set up on the wall.  I hung around a little while after, moving tables and chairs out of the way so I could get a photo of the whole wall.  (I didn't have a good digital photo of the whole piece before, so this alone almost makes the effort worthwhile)  Click on the photo below to enlarge.  To give an idea of scale, it's about 23" wide and 7' tall.

While I was getting my piece on the wall, the rest of the show was coming together.  So at the end of the day all five artists had installed their work.  A few minor adjustments to be made, but the big work in getting the show ready is done a few days ahead of the opening.  I'll post photos of the rest of the show on the night of the reception, but I can tell you that the whole show looks good.

The JAS8 Judge's Choice exhibition's opening reception is Saturday, February 16, from 5 to 7 pm at the Boatworks.  It's located at 608 River Road in Belmar (where 7th Ave crosses the railroad tracks) and admission is free.