Re-writing my artists statement for my East End project (Umbra Sumus), has prompted me to think again about how I might present the work. My thoughts to date have centred on high quality gallery prints of the image text panels. However, having re-positioned my work to be an exploration of the ephemeral nature of immigration in the East End, I am wondering if the form of display should match the subject matter, i.e.it should be a more temporary.
I have started to investigate the idea of producing the image/text panels as posters. Interestingly other artist/photographers such as Victor Burgin used this approach. A quick survey has shown that I should be able to get 30×24 inch posters printed for around £10 each. Discounts apply for greater numbers. My idea would be to model my posters on a style of low cost art prints, like the one below, showing a photograph and an anchoring text/caption. Ansel Adams idealised view of the American landscape is very popular!
©Ansel Adams
My poster would look like this:
Pennyfields Limehouse, former Shanghai Chinatown
I would hang the posters from plastic hangers (£4.00 each) similar to the ones shown below. The hangers would be suspended from wire running along a wall or if the space were appropriate across a room/space.
Poster hangers
My thought is that I would invest in a stock of the poster prints and try to find a venue where I could set up a pop-up-shop style of exhibition, hanging the prints (maybe from washing lines) using the hangers. I would look to sell my stock of posters with the net proceeds going to a local charity – most probably Toynbee Hall. They would be relatively inexpensive and as such within the financial reach of many more people. This approach, if successful would get my work out to a wider audience and with luck raise a few hundred pounds for an East End charity at the same time…. Early days but food for thought…
photo-graph 
Vicki M
March 30, 2014
Like the idea! If you want to make it look even more ‘temporary’; and limit the cost of the hangers, you could always go the ‘Tillmans’ route as shown at Arles with the bulldog clips? Or maybe having the hangers, presumably sold with the psoter, would make it easier to people to visualise and hang in their own environment?
Keith Greenough
March 30, 2014
Thanks Vicki…..will probably experiment with the form, although the hangers for a 70 x56 cm print, which is the size I have in mind cost about £4 with a cost of £8 per print (discount price for 5) total cost per print and hanging is £12. This compares to around £100 for foamcore mounted c-print of the same size.
Vicki M
March 30, 2014
Hello!
Tillmans did not foam core them all—will send you a pic via email—but as I look at it closely—two problems—it might damage the prints; and he pinned the bulldog clips into the walls—which might peeve the venue owners!
Keith Greenough
March 30, 2014
I’m thinking I could suspend the poster hangers from a wire strung across the walls, or even across a room if the space would work with this. Am discovering that gallery owners are very protective of their wall space – For the OCA student exhibition we’re working on Bank Street Arts won’t let us just velcro our foamcore backed photos to the walls. They want us to use battens! So they are happy with screws in the wall but not with velcro on it.