‘Who Will Provide’ Exhibition at The Crypt Gallery
31/10 – 4/11 2018
Our group of thirty three MFA students explored and responded to themes relating to charity and its place in today’s world. The exhibition presented a collection of site specific works, ranging from painting to sculpture, assemblage to video through to performance and photography.
Before the summer break preparations started by putting together various teams to properly organise and execute the event. The members of the research team responded to the site by looking into its history, connecting it to its past and designed the theme ’Who Will Provide?’ around the wish list, a document from 1995 which outlined the desired purpose for the building. This included shelter and provision for the homeless, serving the nearby student population and a focal point for community activities.
I volunteered to join the Installation Team. Over the summer I visited the crypt twice with the view to inform myself about the site (wall space, wall and ceiling heights, location of electrical outlets etc.) and to explore a potential location for my own work.
Two weeks prior to the event the curating team got in touch and supplied our team with a list of required tools and materials. We also received technical information on some more complicated works and installing requirements from The Crypt Gallery itself (No drilling of new holes!). There was very good collaboration between curating and installation team and minor installation problems were efficiently dealt with.
SKILLS: HANDLING ARTWORK, COLLABORATION, PROBLEM SOLVING, ATTENTION TO DETAIL,
SITE SPECIFIC WORKING
'Pearl Delight'
Concept/Inspiration:
The work is a response to recent research and experimentation with fungi and to the brief ‘Who Will Provide?’, about St. Pancras Church and its Crypt, and centres around ideas of provision and preservation of services, safety, shelter and guidance for the community.
Based upon the church’s community ‘Wish List’ from 1995, which detailed hopes and needs for the church’s future, my site- specific work responded to ….’serving the community by feeding the needy ‘, by suggesting the church possibly to supply ‘Grow at Home ‘kits as an idea to grow food for oneself. In line with current concerns on sustainability, these mushroom kits cause no damage to the environment, in fact they recycle organic waste (i.e. woodchips, paper, coffee grounds) into tasty, healthy protein (Oyster Mushroom spawn).
The crypt offers very suitable growing grounds as fungi like it damp and cool whilst needing very little light.
Method:
Research into 'grow at home 'food, selecting mushrooms (Oyster variety) suitable for project and proposed site. Purchasing sample kits from different companies in September and starting growing process by following instructions. Various growth stages were recorded and photographed. (around 14 days growing period). Timing was going to be crucial as the kits should show growth within our 6 day exhibition time.
Purchase of 18 boxes; activating growth process spaced out 10-12-13-14 days before the exhibition days.
Outcome:
Working with living organism turned out to be quite stressful- a lesson learnt and to be remembered. Many of the kits reacted differently i.e. grew much quicker even though treated the same/same room/same temperature. I had purchased more kits than I thought I would need, could therefore stagger the process and so adjust the timetable. Another lesson: You can’t completely control nature! One always needs a backup.
At installation time, on suggestion of our tutor, a more favourable location than the initial one was found at the site.Some of the boxes were hung on the wall, some placed on the floor and some scattered on walls in the main corridor of the Crypt.
Responses and reactions from peers and the public about this kind of strange, unusual work have overall been very positive. The fungi smell was quite powerful and was distributed around the area. Favourable comments were made about my response to this particular site. The display appeared to be intriguing as it wasn’t quite clear to some visitors if the mushrooms were fake or natural. Some wanted to touch the fungi- quite a few people did- and ambivalent reactions were noticed. I answered questions about ‘grow at home’ products and relayed facts about the importance of fungi for our ecosystem.
