After what has simultaneously felt like three long and short years of study I am finally at the end of my photography degree!
Now that all the hard work is done (mostly), I can focus on enjoying putting up some featured work for the end of year grad show exhibition at RMIT.
Typically students would showcase their major project folios in all their glory but I decided that I wanted to showcase a project that I felt more excited about and better represented the type of work that I prefer to make. The project in question is my UV Neon project which features images photographed and treated with UV reactive elements.
After my initial presentation of the works in class serving as a proof of concept I wanted to make sure they were put in the spotlight (pun intended).
Initially I had printed the images at roughly A2 sized sheets. As soon as I hung them up onto the wall for my presentations I knew they needed to be bigger! So now I have double the size to A1 sheets mounted onto foamcore boards that sit off the wall.
The challenge in curating this installation for grad show has been in both finding a suitable space to showcase the work, but also creating the neccescary lighting conditions to be able to use a UV blacklight in conjunction with ambient room lighting. Ideally I’d be able to create a small darkened space that works like how I’d envisioned. Ultimately however, beaurocracy won out and prevented me from creating the kind of installation I wanted. Instead I will showcase the prints as well as a video of the UV effect along-side them.
It’s a lesson for all artists that we learn at some point or another: finding the right space for the work is just as important as the work itself. With that in mind I’ll definitely be looking to exhibit this project again, though in a space that wil let me show it in all it’s glory.
BTS of treating the prints with UV marker to make the images react under blacklight.
RMIT Grad show runs from 3rd-8th December. Check this link for details