London Exhibition Task

Jonas Mekas: The Serpentine Gallery
This exhibition utilizes different sources of media to engage with the viewer with different senses such as film, film still images and an audio interview with Jonas Mekas about the exhibition playing when you enter. The Film stills are arranged in blocks and grouped together which makes the work seem as a whole, but also makes you look individually at the different film still images. In terms of lighting the exhibition is quite bright this is because the lighting is spread out on some pieces and combined with natural daylight. However, a few pieces have solely spot lighting to highlight the piece. In a display case there are film cameras that were used by Mekas to make his films; I think this gives the viewer a connection to the artist through the use of the equipment he used. Also what I found Interesting was how multiple televisions had been put together in a block showing multiple films at once because as the viewer you are trying to find something that interests you but you have the distraction of the other films being played. I thought that the exhibition flowed really well because different types of media were used in the same room which I think works better than having different media in separate rooms. However, I disliked the colour of the walls because I thought it was just too plain and playing it too safe for me.

Seduced by Art: Photography Past & Present: The National Gallery
This exhibition showcases how contemporary photography has been influenced by fine art practices. I found this exhibition to be quite interesting because of how photography is heavily influenced by fine art principles. The exhibition is dark with only spotlights illuminating the work which I liked because it emphasizes this idea of being drawn or seduced by the work. The pieces varied in size from quite small pieces to pieces that took up a whole wall section. There was use of a partitioned wall that isolated pieces so that it would attract the attention of the viewer. The Exhibition was divided into sections according on the theme used, e.g. Portrait, Landscape and Still Life. Because of that I thought the exhibition lacked a sense of flow. The walls were black which I liked because it worked well with the dark room to again highlight the pieces of work.

When comparing both exhibitions, they are both of similar size in terms of the exhibition space. When contrasting both exhibitions, Jonas Mekas only showed film and film stills while Seduced by art, showed both Painting and Photography. Moreover, Jonas Mekas had a very aesthetic quality to please more than one sense to it and Seduced by Art only was visual.