Artist in Residence Week 8 - Laura Jackson-Wills.

In week 8 of our summer season The Old Lookout became home to Laura Jackson-Wills, with her exhibition Space Place. The work on show brought together the visual aspects of her Phd project about the unique space of beach huts, and how their owners use them. For this exhibition, Laura focused on presenting images from 3 coastal towns in East Anglia, one each from Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. In her statement Laura described the project as "A study of beach hutters' sensory and lived experience at the seaside." Alongside photographs taken throughout the project, handmade books documenting the progression of the project, old collected postcards from the seaside and a book of interviews with beach hutters were also on display. Themes of space, place and time were reflected in the work. Laura also presented the image that sparked off the entire 6 year project for her, bringing the work to a nice close.

Something that was great to hear was just how lovely people had been about the work. Laura did note that again some people did just come up to look at the view, but most still stayed and looked at the exhibition whilst they were there. She said that one of the most positive things she took from her time at The Old Lookout was building confidence in talking to members of the public about the work, and hearing positive comments. Whilst I was there on Wednesday we both had a long conversation with a couple whose daughter was thinking about doing a degree in the arts. Details were passed on and it was fantastic to see that seeing exhibitions such as this can really inspire people and make them think about encouraging others to get into the arts in some way. For me, the exhibition seemed like a brilliant way to round off the visual aspects of a long term project, and to hear the public's reaction as to which direction to take the work next.
On the day of the set up Laura did mention to me that she had been thinking about running some very informal workshops on book making. She knew that running formal sessions wouldn't necessarily work, but suggested that maybe if people were interested in what she was doing she would have the resources to teach them how to do it. In the end however, she decided not to go ahead with this - after having been in the gallery she said she hadn't realised what a transient space it was. People generally come in by chance, and therefore don't look to spend long periods of time there. Nevertheless, it seemed like a good idea to have something art-based to be doing whilst looking after the exhibition, to be able to take something physical away form the residency.
The only concerns that Laura suggested relating to the way the gallery is run were with the marketing and publicity. She mentioned that it would make sense to put a little bit more money into getting adverts into the free newspapers and magazines in the area, to bring more awareness to local people. She also thought that the graphics and style of the posters and flyers might need a fresh pair of eyes looking at, and felt the design was a bit too cluttered, which makes it difficult to be striking enough to grab people's attention. She suggested that it could just be because she's a graphic designer so picks up on these things more easily, but thought that it might be a nice idea to look to the Graphic and Multimedia Design courses at the Broadstairs campus to perhaps suggest some changes to the brand of the gallery.
In terms of the public's reaction to the exhibition, Laura noted that people did regard the work as a conversation starter. It was nice to hear people recognising the places depicted in the photographs, and therefore making a connection to the work. There was one particular photograph of an elderly man asleep outside his beach hut that consistently struck a chord - people saying things like "He looks like he could be everyone's granddad!". It was so nice to hear people discussing common ground in the images even if they weren't taken in Kent. Laura thought that with the location of the gallery, it attracts many more chance visitors than a larger commercial gallery might, but fewer people who deliberately come to the exhibitions, who know what to expect. However, from what I observed, many of the people who spent time with the images really did connect with the work and the ideas behind the project.