Working in collaboration with Ithuba Arts Gallery, the British Council invited three innovative, independent or artist-run visual arts spaces in the UK to collaborate with South African artists as part of the LAB exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa. AutoItalia SouthEast (London), Banner Repeater (London) and Eastside Projects (Birmingham) were invited to create installations within the Ithuba Gallery space while working alongside local artists.
These three spaces then travelled to Johannesburg to learn about the local artistic context through studio visits with artists, site visits of the city’s major public, commercial and independent visual arts spaces and tours of the city’s architectural landmarks.
AutoItalia created a Billboard that was to be mounted on the exterior of the gallery. My focus for this installation was to hire fabricators to build the frame, print and mount the vinyl graphic. AutoItalia did not make the trip to South Africa, so all our communications were over the phone and email.
Banner Repeater used a large portion of the gallery space to create a live performance that utilised projectors and the sound. Working closely with the artist, my role was to handle the technical installation of the work and stage manage the performance when it began.
Eastside Projects had discovered a number of phenomenal images during their research trip earlier in the year. Their team set up a special room within the gallery, which involved building a wall, door, creating and applying custom vinyl graphics.
My role across the project was to manage each installation's build, engage with the artists prior to the event to arrange 3rd parties, manage all 3rd parties and crew.