Kickstarter Updates

To keep my Kickstarter donators invested in my project I thought it a good idea to push out regular updates. I like to follow an artist's work in progress myself to see how they develop ideas and resolve problems and I am sure that many others feel the same way. I decided to commit to a weekly update on the project that published to my Kickstarter page and automatically emailed existing donators. I also publicised the updates to my social media accounts so that potential new donators who were interested could follow the link to my Kickstarter project page. I found that updates are a useful tool for generating new donators. Every time I published an update a few new donators would join the project.

The project has been a big success and has met my goal of raising £500 to cover my printing costs. With 18 days to go the project has raised 107% of the funding requested.


The updates are listed below:

  

Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance - De La Warr Pavillion

This exhibition explores the history of resistance movements and alternative forms of living from the perspective of gender. The work of a number of artists is on show and the exhibition certainly requires a couple of visits to get the most from it. I was mostly drawn to the work of the following artists:

Judy Chicago - Smoke Goddess. 1972 - colour photographs of an installation performance featuring naked women, coloured smoke bombs and fire in the desert. Chicago states that 'Smoke provides a liberation from structure, while its colour was intended to feminise and soften the environment'. To me these images are images of resistance to patriarchal norms in the art movements of the time such as overly grand landscape art mainly constructed by men.

Judy Chicago - Smoke Goddess. 1972.

Osias Yanov - Aoot. 2018 - This structure represents a stylised ladder and relates to key symbols and moments of queer and trans resistance. As a prop maker I found this work to be informative. I like the symbolism of a ladder to indicate time and progress. I always enjoy looking at physical pieces and find myself drawn more and more away from photography and painting into sculptural forms. 

Osias Yanov - Aoot. 2018.

Micha Cardenas - Becoming a Dragon. 2009 - This piece consisted of print outs of a piece performed entirely online in the 3D world of Second Life. Described as a mixed reality performance the viewer was able to watch online as the artists inhabited the world of Second Life for 365 days. This piece relates to the requirement for trans people to experience 'real life' as their chosen gender before receiving gender confirmation surgery. This was an interesting piece to think about. The print outs convey a real sense of performance, of which it is argued in Queer theory what gender mostly consists of - being culturally constructed. 

   Micha Cardenas - Becoming a Dragon. 2009.

Vali Mahlouji - Archeology of the Final Decade 2014 -2018 - Is a platform for recovering cultural memory. In the work at the De La Warr gallery we see 'Recreating the Citadel'. This piece consists of documentary photographs and writings from an archive pieced together over eight years. It is the only surviving record of the destruction of a red light district in Tehran in 1972. The photographs show a once vibrant and squalid urban neighbourhood inhabited by marginalised groups that had its own set of rules and values. The work is very poignant and reminds me of the destruction of the cultural life of the LGBTQ bars and neighbourhoods by the Nazis. These stories are almost always forgotten and glossed over by traditional historians.

Vali Mahlouji - Recreating the Citadel. 2014 - 2018.

There were many more pieces of work on display, most of it fairly non traditional and radical in nature. Lots of political posters from feminist and LGBTQ groups adorned the walls and a library of reading matter and a seating area was provided too. This was a very well thought out exhibition that gave voice to a wide range of marginalised groups.

Keeping A Promotional Campaign Fresh

Thinking up new ways to continue to engage with an audience as an artist is very time consuming. There are lots of strategies to think about and new skills to learn. This all takes time. But this time is necessary as making art that has no audience seems ultimately fruitless and frustrating.

So far I've used a number of strategies to promote awareness of my exhibition. Firstly I began by make updates on social media about my progress towards the exhibition. This involved images of my work in progress on individual pieces, making bases for props and the acquiring of items such as plinth bases. I feel that showing how an artist puts an exhibition together would be of interest to the viewer and also help to build and sustain interest throughout the campaign.

 Making a base for a prop

Plinth bases for props

Another line of promotion I am about to utilise is to link my exhibition with various events and things to do in Margate. I propose to post to social media a different aspect of Margate every week. There is a lot of choice in this seaside town such as the newly refurbished Dreamland amusement park, the old town quarter, Margate Pride, the Turner Contemporary, the beach and the harbour arm cafes and bars. I learned how to make GIFs with Photoshop. The steps are fairly simple and there is a number of videos online explaining the process. As with anything the time comes in designing a GIF that looks appropriate and getting the feel of it right. Here is my first effort that I pushed out to social media yesterday:

BE BY THE SEASIDE (Dreamland) promotional GIF

Once I was satisfied with my newly created GIF I attempted to push it out to social media. I soon realised that although Facebook and Twitter were fine, Instagram did not support GIFs! After all my efforts that was really frustrating! I investigated and found a third-party app that purported to have a work-around but it corrupted my GIF. Eventually I had a brainwave and realised that Photoshop could export my GIF files to a small movie format that Instagram would support. This blog also has trouble displaying one of the images correctly but it works fine on all my other SM formats now.

When designing my GIF I tried to keep it basic and used the strapline "BE BY THE SEASIDE" which I will use for the other GIFS too. The intention is to raise awareness of other activities that could be done by a visitor that may be considering travelling to Margate for my exhibition. As with all marketing attempts it remains to be seen how effective this strategy will be. This is the conundrum. How much time do you spend learning new skills and putting together new campaigns against all the other numerous tasks that need to be completed for the exhibition deadline!

BE BY THE SEASIDE (Turner Contemporary) promotional GIF

BE BY THE SEASIDE (Harbour Arm) promotional GIF

BE BY THE SEASIDE (Shell Grotto) promotional GIF

I need to continue to promote my Kickstarter campaign by providing updates on my progress. I have just finished a new collage piece 'collage 3' and will write about that. One idea I've had to get more engagement is to ask for suggestions for a title for it. All the Target Practice photographs are numbered 1 -- 11. The three new collages will have names. It will be interesting to make a Kickstarter post about naming one of the collages and see what (if any) feedback this generates.

Collage 3

Spray Mounting Test No. 2

Yesterday I spray mounted my second test piece. This was at the larger size of 40x30 inches. It went fairly well apart from an initial panic about bubbling. Luckily I could re-lift the print and squeeze out the unwanted air pockets without too much trouble. I have to be really careful as there is a trade-off between thoroughly rubbing the surface to remove air and damaging the print surface. I've been using some acid free paper and a sponge type thing I borrowed from Gerry's art supplies. It seems to work quite well.

I am much happier with this print. The first one came out too dark. This is much closer to my smaller assessment pieces. Cutting the foam board wasn't too difficult either. I learnt a few tips along the way that will make the process much easier when I batch order the rest of the prints next month.

Kickstarter

I've updated and finalised my Kickstarter page today. I have asked for £500 towards printing costs for my exhibition. As a reward contributors will be offered one or two digital prints dependant on level of contribution. The project is currently with Kickstarter admin to assess that it fits their fundraising rules which should take a few days. Once it has passed I can begin to promote my project on social media.

Edit 24th April:

My Kickstarter page is launched! I had to make a few amendments to ensure that URL's to all my social media are embedded into all my sites. Now visitors should be able to navigate between my Kickstarter page and my personal website or Instagram. I was quite excited to launch my page. I already have some very generous donations via the Kickstarter site and my personal Facebook page. I just need to advertise my campaign more widely now, something I will be doing over the next few days.

my Kickstarter campaign

I began publicising my exhibition online today. I began with posting my flyer to my Facebook account and other small FB groups that I belong to. Most of these contacts are fellow OCA students and FB friends. The post has been shared a number of times already so it is good to know that the publicity for my exhibition will begin to spread further than my own small circle. I've also used WhatsApp to send the flyer to friends that are not necessarily on FB but inevitably some people will come into contact with my flyer through a number of channels.

I also posted on the OCA discussion forum's coffee shop and photography sections. That is it for today. Tomorrow I will use MailChimp to mass email my flyer to my contact database. I began this list early on in the SYP module as directed and it is surprising how quickly it grows if you keep on top of it. The database will allow me to personally invite art contacts that may wish to be informed of my work and the dates. Once that is done the next task is to use Instagram and Twitter to broadcast to a wider audience.

The plan is to publicise the exhibition twice. One for people to put the date in their diaries and another much nearer the opening as a reminder.

Two New Pieces

Two of the three new pieces designed for the gallery space are now finished. Like the Target Practice photographs I'm mounting them onto foam board so the gallery presentation is cohesive. Twenty sheets of A0 foam board is quite expensive! But nothing compared to the cost of framing.

The first piece I made involving the pink triangles with the bullet holes is now complete. I initially experimented with a textured surface on which to place the triangles. This resulted in the bowing of the foam board. I tried a few variations of textured paint/paste but ultimately the foam board does not appear suitable to much manipulation. It is so easily damaged.

Target Practice No.2 (working title).

I am satisfied with the overall result and once in the gallery space I think it will add a much needed splash of colour to the mostly green and brown landscape pieces. It also gives the viewer the opportunity to see some of the triangles close-up.



The second piece of collaged triangles was made to resemble a portrait of Josef Kohout. From the one available photograph I began experimenting with folding and manoeuvring the image to bring out the different facial characteristics in Josef's portrait.

Josef Kohout

Paper folding experiment No. 4

I based the triangles in this piece on the convention of the portrait format. I toyed with the idea of placing a picture frame around the finished piece to further highlight this but decided it would look contrived. I prefer the simplicity of the shapes and the piece better fits with the rest of the exhibition on foam board and without frames.

Josef Kohout (working title).

I have just one more piece to make. I still have the mounting of the prints to do once I've ordered them from my online printer. Some plinth bases to make, A base for one of the large props and signage. Still lots to do!