PLUMPTON RACECOURSE ARTWAVE 2024
Although I write occasionally about my studio and what i’m currently creating, these last months I’ve actually been preparing for a little art fair for Artwave festival at Plumpton Racecourse. Last year I exhibited my work at Cuckmere Haven which I really enjoyed, particularly as I sold two of my sculptures. It’s a challenge to find exhibitions to enter, often getting rejected like a job application. Sadly Cuckmere Haven weren’t partaking in Artwave Festival this year, which meant I had to source other Artwave exhibitions.
I applied for Sussex Contemporary’s Plumpton Race course exhibition back in March, and luckily I was excepted! Although it was a group art fair exhibition, its still important to curate your artists; make sure the work isn’t too similar, that they work alongside each other, and that the artwork is up to a certain quality. Don’t get me wrong, all art is art but when like any exhibition or gallery you have to set certain standards which luckily I fit into this time. After being excepted, I had time to get my ceramic work together and try figure out how to display them. Ceramic sculpture is a long run game, it’s a challenge to get scratch glazes together, prepare materials, finish work, and finalise mounts. I’m organised in certain aspects but there are lots and lots of areas where I’m not organised, and I have a habit of procrastinating when it comes to mounting work (there’s still over 7 pieces of work looking for mounts….). Alas, I somehow got most of my work together. The next step was plinths. I wanted my work to be displayed on plinths however plinths are extortionately expensive or 2nd hand ones are very rare to come by locally. So I decided to build them, suffice to say that it didn’t go quite as planned…
After building the plinths which are MDF, they were rather horrible to paint. The first primer coat was a watered down PVA glue, then white primer paint, then more paint. After 4 coats there were white enough for the exhibition, however in the long run they will need a sand and more white paint coats. The plinths are also incredibly heavy and cumbersome… and they don’t fit all together into my small mini car. I also needed to display my Big Moon, ‘The freedom of me, is being with you’ sculpture and my Flower Faces on some from of wall mount. I couldn’t build a wall display as it’s just too big to manoeuvre, however my sister came across two easels on the road near her house, someone had built them from a wedding but for me there were so handy. A wooden board on the easel with some nails- perfect.
With the kind help of my dad and my boyfriend Ben I was able to move all the plinths and sculptures to the festival, setting up my plinths and easel (for hanging objects) the day before. Most of my sculptures are quite robust and can travel well, however there are quite a few which I don’t like to travel due to the fragile state- like my Big Moon sculpture. Somehow I’ve managed to travel with it twice and not break anything…
After getting everything up on the displays it came together quite well. Although it wasn’t as busy as I wanted it to be, it was nice to be alongside other artists and actually chat art! I throughly enjoy working on my own in the studio, however I don’t have a lot of friends who do art or even work in a creative sector so it was great to chat art, chat to other ceramicists, and get ideas. I was also lucky enough to sell a few pieces, less than I would’ve have liked, but at the end of the day it’s all exposure!
