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SELLOUT - Marketing & Products.....

After brainstorming ideas and researching into craft and the idea of a pop up art shop I decided on using my postcard designs for t-shirts instead, and chose to exhibit one of my embroidery hoops which is made up of 3 female gender symbols embroidered onto cross stitch fabric with beading around the top and bottom. I choose to embroider the gender symbols as it was something that I hadn't done yet with the symbols and felt that it would be interesting to see how these symbols would change once stitched lovingly, by hand. Much like my hand made object, this embroidery hoop did have an element of the occult to it, like they were witchcraft symbols. I find it interesting how the interpretation of a symbol can change due the medium it's recreated in - link between materiality and image. I also had an interest in female identity, and how we identify as women - 'My work heavily features the female gender symbol as a sign of unity, strength and power. For this piece, I used embroidery to unite the ideas of craft and identity. This also links in with the idea of SELLOUT as I wanted something to really blur the lines between fine art and craft. Something that could be seen as a meaningful piece derived from different concepts, but at the same time be seen as a show of skill, a useless object with no overall purpose.'

Other products we produced for the show included;

  • T-shirts and small photographs from Charlotte - ''Lips Poetically' A small collection of ethnically sourced T shirts with the addition of a hand-made print, visually describes a relationship between nature and thought patterns, From the Artist's perspective, a decision was made to merge the serious subject of environmental awareness with the playful use of text, as an experiment towards reaction between the viewing audience. The viewer is invited to let the individual poetic names guide the story shown in the design of the prints.'
  • Multiple cubes with mirror plating and light up wiring, screen prints inspired by said cubes, t-shirts and a tote bag also inspired by the cubes from Kinga - 'The sleek minimalism of the cube in combination with a bright, chaotic string of light creates a rather odd harmony of the millennial aesthetic. Its shape speaks of the memory lane many artists took as they engaged in a dialogue with a cube throughout the contemporary art practice, while the light locked within is a reminder of the fast, loud and messy lives of the current generation. Whether transparent or reflective, whether to look in or out, the cube was, is and always will be. To me, SELLOUT is a cry of irony, being surrounded by the instance of commercialising our art it feels like the art pieces lose its meaning, its purpose and become no different than the mass produced merchandise you can grab off the shelf at any other store. Instead of trying to desperately avoid it, SELLOUT takes the idea to the extreme, with the exhibition being curated in a way that makes it look like a shop, without explicitly affirming nor denying its true purpose as a space.'
  • Multiple useless objects painted pink, QR code themed objects, screen prints based off of the slogans, and a bust of Venus covered in pom-poms from Beth - '''ce nest pas un morceau de papier" I have used SELLOUT as a space of endless possibilities to experiment with the value and aesthetic in retaliation of commercial limitation. My work renders objects useless yet cares for aesthetic detail, exploring how favoured aesthetic gives objects desired value and commodity. Playful and humorous, I poke fun at trends within the fine art course and environment.'
We have also invited another fine art student to exhibit in the show - Jodie Young. She wanted to exhibit her painted tote bags which were inspired by social media and explore the differences between real life / virtual online life, how large majority of our 'friends list' do not really know what we're up to day to day. Her other tote bag titled 'yeah hun, my loves as fake as my lips' explores the relationship between audience and reality tv stars, and the relevance of social media such as Snapchat. We felt that these pieces really worked well with our theme as its based on social media and has an element of millennialism within it which relates to some of the other pieces included in the show.

After gathering most of the pieces together we arranged for a photo shoot to highlight the pieces and to be used for promotional purposes. Beth modelled the work and wore a couple of her t-shirts. These photographs were taken by photographer Hannah Smith. 

We then created an Instagram page - @s3llout_ where we would post these promotional photographs with catchy captions. I also wanted to post behind the scenes photos of the work in progress, to bring the viewer along with the process and to create hype for the show once it opens. We also used these images to create gifs and also created a Facebook page which allowed people to say whether or not they were interested and if they were going to the exhibition - allows for more viewer interactivity. Overall, the marketing has allowed us to gain quite a big following and interest among people, which will hopefully make this show a success, especially with the pop-up shop aspect of the show. 

This has definitely allowed me to improve on my marketing skills, and has allowed me really use the skills that I have from running my own social medias and apply them here. I have also become really interested in the idea of creative marketing, and is something that I'm considering for possible future employment. I do think that the only thing left to develop within this project is the research into the idea of the gallery space as a shop and the planning for the install in May. Furthermore, I'm really happy with how big the following of the show has become and I'm really excited to see what it looks like after install. 








































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