So- there are logistical issues with working at Columbia. We have the whole "city is our campus" line that the admissions peoples tell new students- and that was SO true this week. Because bringing this show together involved trekking things all over the city.
So as not to bore you, here's a quick run down of what I'm talking about: work comes in to mailroom, mailroom calls me, I walk a block to the mailroom, navigate my way through the tore up sidewalk in front of the door, get the package of artwork, navigate back through the sidewalk (repeat ten times). Gather all the work out of my office, bring in the car, bring in students to help (thank you Nick and Andy), haul all the boxes to the car (in front of my office is now a no parking zone), drive the boxes to the next no parking zone to unload (repeat).
Also- trip to Ikea to get 24 steel shelves to use as magazine racks to show the printed materials on- which I'm hoping is an excellent solution to the problem of finding a way to put tear sheets and books neatly into the show. (thanks to Katie for painting them!)
And that's to say nothing of the matting. Back in summer when the show was months away and I just wanted the best artists possible, I offered to mat any unframed work. Most of these images in the show weren't created for gallery exhibition, so they aren't framed. This offer made it easier on the artists, and also made shipping less expensive. Then a couple weeks ago, when it came time to find someone to mat the work, my inner virgo came out and decided to do it all myself for fear of anyone else touching (aka ruining) these awesome works of art.
Also- trip to the hardware store to have them cut 40 something pieces of plex (thankfully I didn't get all virgo on that task)- to be picked up next week.
This week I came to regret the mat-it-yourself choice. I ordered the mat board and backing boards. Four boxes (32 x 40" in size, 32-39 pounds in weight). I then drove in, loaded them all into the car, drove home, lugged them all up to my 3rd floor walk up apartment (it was easier on my schedule to cut mats in my studio between projects than to do it at work), cut 44 mats and backing boards (my cat just learned to sit on whatever I'm doing- which made me extra glad that I left the art at work), haul all 4 boxes down again, take them into work, insert all of the art into the mats, and...done w/ that-mostly.
So now all that's left to do is re-cut a few mats, order all of the vinyl lettering, move some walls around in the gallery, paint the gallery, and install the show. Easy peasy.
Despite all of this moaning about how much work this week has been, I was so so excited to put the work in the mats (using non-adhesive, archival, safe as can be mounting strips). I am actually looking forward to installing Monday just to start to see this come together. It's been a long, long time of planning and it will be so cool to see everything DONE! And, I'll be working with Michael and Chelsea who are excellent freelance preparators and Mark who is a great wall-movin' coordinator!
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