During the installation process, there were a few issues that arose that have provided learning points and challenges.
The Lansdown Hall and Gallery is a Grade 2 listed building, decorated with rustic-cut Cotswold stone turrets and pinnacles, built in the 1880’s as a Temperance Hall. It is owned by Stroud Town Council to be held in perpetuity for the community, and run as a community venue by a small charity. Due to the age of the building, the walls are not all flat and true.
The images below show how some of the images were installed against the walls. There are gaps on some parts of the frames due to the uneven wall surface.
In one area, the uneven wall meant that I decided to swap the position of 2 images. ‘The contour tribe’ should have been positioned over the ridge (shown below). However. this would have produced too much distortion across the 1.2m length of this image. So it was decided to position the much smaller ‘mask of divine proportion’ image over this part of the wall as the distortion (and effect on the image) was significantly less.
Another issue was the amount of glare and reflection created by the intense sunlight. I did not choose anti-reflection glass (something I would definitely do in the future). The reflection is shown below.
To overcome this (and with the gallery’s permission), I purchased and hung neutral curtains over the windows.
These curtains significantly reduced the reflections. The effect was very noticeable and the gallery have now purchased the curtains off me for use in future exhibitions.
I was able to directly hang the curtains from hooks fixed above 2 of the windows. Due to the height (over 3m from the ground), I used a telescopic pole to get the curtains to the right height. I had to get each curtain eyelet into the right place for it to fasten to the hooks. This was like a large scale fairground game!
The other 2 windows had no hooks above them. For these curtains, I needed to duct tape a brass ‘S’ hook to the back of the eyelets. Using the telescopic pole as before, I then hooked this to a very secure and solid cable tray above the window.
All in all, the installation of the curtains took me around an hour to complete. The effect of the curtains is shown below, with just a minimal reflection coming from the open door.
For future exhibitions, I will visit the exhibition space several times to evaluate the amount of reflection that may be experienced.
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