Artists in Residence Week 5 - Steve Ibb and Francesca Flowers.

The exhibition down at The Old Lookout in the fifth week of our summer season was Atmosphere: Through Air and Water, comprising photography by Steve Ibb and sound art by Francesca Flowers. The images on display document Steve's sailing voyage in the arctic circle, with atmospheric seascapes in vivid colours, some crisp and clear, and others more abstracted, focusing more on shape and tone. They also featured a block of ice, connecting back to the arctic seascapes, which melted throughout the day and created natural, beautiful shapes. There were also several separate artefacts - a framed polaroid, a portfolio of separate, personal work and images hung from the ceiling, bringing several different layers to the space. This was all set to the background of recorded sounds of the sea by Francesca, played in a surround sound style, so that the experience of standing in the coastal-themed space was immersive.

As Steve mentioned, and I agree, The Old Lookout Gallery is the perfect location for this subject matter. Had this exhibition been placed in a different location there may have been a different mentality, a different outcome for the visitors. For me, the contrast between the two different views of the sea was very effective - the icy, cold, menacing views in the photographs accompanied by the recordings of crashing waves, contrasted against the views out of the window of a sunny, warm, inviting seascape. I also relished the connection between some of the items featured in the images and artefacts in the building itself - oars, rope, the blue twine used to hold up the black and white images, for example. I also felt that the strong colours in the photographs, which were mentioned by a lot of visitors as an interesting factor, work well against the black wooden background. In terms of the public's reaction to the exhibition, Francesca noted that, although she expected her sounds would likely fade into the background and go relatively unnoticed, visitors did comment on how it brought more of an atmosphere to the gallery space. Steve also suggested that his work resonated much more with people who had been on similar journeys, who had seen the same sights as him. Similarly to Jon, the artists chose not to use information labels or captions for the images, to encourage rapport with the visitors to the gallery. However, they also noted that most of the time they really had to make an effort to engage with visitors; the artist has to make the first move in terms of striking up conversation and discussion.

Once again, Steve and Francesca both noticed that there were a few people who just came up the stairs and wanted to look at and find out about the building, as opposed to the current exhibition. Added to this, some people mainly came up to ask about the SEAS archive, and where they could get their family photographs scanned in. This relates to the South East Archive of Seaside Photography exhibition that was taking place at the Pie Factory Gallery in Margate at the time. Steve and Francesca kindly redirected them, and suggest that this confusion may be down to the fact that there has been a lot of marketing about the Pie Factory exhibition, and may have got confused in people's minds with the SEAS exhibition in August at The Old Lookout. However, this may not have been all  a bad thing if the visitors that came by mistake did stay and look at the exhibition anyway! Another thing that Steve mentioned was that he was surprised to see that not many people immediately made the connection between the images on display and the block of ice. He felt there could have been more interactive elements in their show in order to engage the viewers.

Overall, both artists said they had enjoyed their time at The Old Lookout. Steve did note that he came into the exhibition expecting to sell quite a few pieces of work, and in that respect he was disappointed. However, as a residency, Francesca suggested, it really works. They both also felt that it was a good opportunity to collate the images and sounds together as a show. It was said that the low-key nature of the building and the way exhibitions are put together at The Old Lookout really is an asset, and that for this type of subject matter, it is a near-perfect location to exhibit in.