End of show blues... and reds, and yellows...

I have switched the lights off for the last time in 'On Brown and Violet Grounds' at Piccadilly Place. I feel a sense of satisfaction that I have never felt before when the end of a show comes. Normally I feel a great deal of sadness connected to the fact it is the inevitable end of something good. Maybe this feeling is not apparent because I know the work will be seen again (be it is a different guise or elsewhere), that the people I wanted to see the show came an saw it and that the feedback I had was excellent.

The question is: was having no preview/opening night the right thing to do? Yes, absolutely. I clocked an amazing number of visitors (plus all those who saw the show whilst passing on the footbridge across to Piccadilly Station). The fact I didn't have a preview meant that people came in their own time and stayed longer. They stayed to watch the 10min video, look at the work and have a chat. I had 8 show days to indulge in this feedback rather than an intense 3 hour preview where everyone is there, the artists can't get round to speak to everyone and very few people actually look at the work. I saved £150 because I didn't have to hire the on-site security and more money on booze - instead I poured the funding into the new work.

More galleries/pop-up shows should perhaps take note of this model. People were astonished that I was having no private view - like it was artistic suicide - the general comment being "when will visitors come then?". Well - they did come, in their hundreds, to look at the work and not to smooze! Job done.

I was delighted with the comments visitors left and the conversations I had. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to come say hi and see the new work. 

Over the next few weeks I will be uploading images of the new work taken by myself and photographer Stephen Iles, who has made some beautiful medium format images of the show. Watch this space...