DIY. MUST MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Gallery Practices: Ideas for Events/Exhibition
Madhurya Balan

1. No Thank You.
What: This event explores peoples’ strange fetishes for strange food combinations.
When: Sunday brunch or tea-time.
How: 10-15 students will be chosen to exhibit their top 5 strange recipes and also have a counter where people who are enticed can order it. The students and the recipes will be chosen based on the criteria that they are strange combinations but not inedible.
Why: Friendships can be made over common (and yes, strange) food fetishes.

2. Self-Publish, Be Happy.
What: A workshop-exhibition for people who love books, writing and illustrating.
When: Over a weekend
How: The first session of the workshop will consist of the artists and students who’ve signed up for the workshop choosing their materials and making life-size portraits and descriptions of their main characters. During the second session, they students/artists will begin their books and leave it unfinished to be completed during the actual exhibition by the audience.
Why: It explores themes of authorship, ownership, storytelling and media (and style) of this storytelling.

3. For the Love of Print!
What: A Workshop-Exhibition that explores and looks at DIY practices and techniques of Print. Ways of doing and using woodcut, linocut, stencils and street art. For the love of print, ink, paper and walls.
When: Over a few weekends
How: DIY, sourcing the materials that are required for the techniques of printing, maybe one or two facilitators for the part of the duration. Students will be given space and time to explore their own expressions in DIY print. Around 5 pieces from each student will be framed, mounted or displayed in some way for the final exhibition.
Why: Print is awesome.

4. ____pt!
What: A typography exhibition where the works are created by zooming into a chosen typeface, using the serifs, curves and lines of a character.
When: Over a couple of weeks
How: Students and artists submit their work and chosen ones are printed, framed/mounted and exhibited along with notes on the typeface and it’s characteristics in the form of a haiku.
Why: There are some hidden surprises in type.

5. Syntax: Hello World
What: A within-the-community initiative for the students of different years to get to know one another that is on a light and humorous note. This event will not take itself too seriously; although saying that, there will be no compromise on the professional manner of conducting the exhibition.
When: Every evening for an entire month.
How: Randomly, 7 students from each year will be chosen to exhibit themselves and one piece of work and two objects. The students will be considered exhibits within the space and call for interaction in the form of questions, conversations and with the objects they have chosen for themselves from the audience.
Why: Because most of students’ interactions and friendships are confined within their academic year peers. This event aims to broaden social participation within the Srishti community.

6. SITCOM
What: A new-media performance exhibition that makes the audience the performer.
When: Over a weekend
How: The gallery space will be divided into two, with a projector, speakers and camera in each half of the space. A set of 5 props is laid out on the table. The audience is invited (individually or a small group) to pick up a prop and stand in front of the camera. A random background is chosen and the audience from both spaces shares the projected screen. They are given exactly 4 and half minutes to interact with each other with dialogues and the props to create a short film.
Why: For fun. And To create a fun data base of film that is funny, strange, surrealist and absurd.

HINDSIGHT

Okay, guys.
I've typed out an overview of our course so far.
Take a look at it as it helps gather the head and some perspective on our sources and inputs.

1. Theory and Discussions on
Display, Exhibition and Curatorial Practices
Facilitators: Ramesh, Raghu, Ravi, Meena
Exercises:
Think of something from the past and something contemporary and juxtapose the two within the framework of a context
Propose an exhibition for NGMA, Bangalore
Take the icon/form of the lota and place it in different contexts visually

2. Identity and Branding
Quick exercise on building the character of the gallery along with the Mission Statement and some visual identities
Facilitator: Sonalee
Exercises:
Mind maps, mood-boards, logo iterations

3. Goals and Objectives
Understanding how to define goals and objectives of a space and it’s context and character
Facilitator: Meena

4. Field Research
Class divided into:
Students visiting Delhi, The India Art Fair and galleries in Delhi
Students visiting galleries and exhibition spaces in Bangalore
Exercise:
To present research findings

5. Role Play Activity
To don the roles of people who involved in decision making for a gallery
Exercise:
Class divided into 4 groups in these different spaces-
Museum
Art Fair
Gallery in a University Space
Artist Collective

6. Coded Culture
introduced to the Austrian team behind the media-fest Coded Culture
We were invited to contribute and participate in the initial phase of discussions for bringing the festival to Bangalore in September this year.

7. Urban AvantGarde
We attended a seminar by curator Lene ter Haar.
We also visited the exhibition on street art in Max Mueller Bhavan.
We interviewed and photographed the UrbanAvantGarde project and the artists involved in it, in and around the streets of Malleswaram.
Out of the material, we wrote, edited and created a Newsletter for the project.

8. Proposal Writing
an exercise on writing a formal and professional proposal for a project and funding
Facilitator: Girish Prabhu
We were taken through the structure and process of writing of a proposal.
Our class was divided and worked on different portions of the proposal, we then discussed discrepancies and added comments and changes to it.
We are working on editing the proposal for a final format.

9. Visual Cultures
We discussed contemporary art practices, the big names in contemp art, curatorial practices, visited Bar1, Jaaga and SKE Gallery in Bangalore, had discussions with Christoph Storz from Bar1 and Surash Kumar from Sumukha.
Facilitator: Ayisha

the industry

The art

The space

delhi