Know My Name: an exhibition in design

Exhibition design is a wonderfully unique profession. It is a collaborative and multi-disciplinary role, incorporating architecture, graphic design, industrial design, engineering, project management and fabrication … Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now will span an enormous amount of National Gallery floor space.

What are an Exhibition Designer’s priorities when designing spaces?

To understand the spatial environment of the galleries and carefully consider how a visitor interacts with the works of art. Exhibition Designers plan the visitor flow, key sightlines and transitions between spaces to subtly craft a dialogue between the art and the visitor.

What are the professional skills required to become an Exhibition Designer?

My background is in architecture, however our team is made up of graphic, interior architecture and industrial designers. A sound spatial knowledge is key. Being a good listener is also important as we design in a collaborative manner taking cues from the curator’s vision for the show as well as artist, lender and conservation requirements. Exhibition Designers take all these ideas and give them form.

Tell us about some of the early process in exhibition design.

Of the 390+ works within Know My Name, careful consideration goes into where to place each work within the 23 gallery spaces. I’ve been designing exhibitions at the Gallery for over a decade and have become quite familiar with Colin Madigan’s building, however I’m still discovering new vistas, punctuations and rhythms in the architecture. For this exhibition, after researching the works and understanding their installation requirements, I began by intuitively placing the large-scale and more complicated works at key sightlines and strategic points within the layout. This allowed me to ensure there is variety in the experience as you move through the exhibition and control the pace.

Can you share with us the impact of the COVID pandemic on the Know My Name exhibition design?

COVID-19 meant that the Gallery’s exhibition program had to be adjusted, and this made new gallery spaces available for the Know My Name exhibition. We were able to increase the footprint of the show to 4300m2 which was very exciting. We worked closely with the curatorial team to rethink what was possible. We shifted from working collaboratively using a physical model to connecting via Skype from our respective homes, with me screen sharing my software Vectorworks to prepare the layout and elevations virtually. These drawings were then shared to teams across the Gallery to guide their work.

To encourage social distancing, the layout is intentionally open, and I had to remove any elements that visitors would touch from the exhibition. One important moment in the exhibition is inspired by the seventeenth-century displays of Paris Salons where works of art were stacked floor to ceiling — we have a 12m wide x 6m high salon hang dedicated to portraiture. iPads or large format pick-up card labels were no longer suitable to convey the information for the 60 works on this wall, so now I plan on having a large wall label and the opportunity for visitors to download the exhibition labels onto their own device during their visit.

How many artists, mediums and works of art are included in this exhibition?

The exhibition spans 23 galleries, includes over 170 artists and contains over 390 works of art drawn from the National Gallery’s collection and private and public collections from across Australia.

The exhibition encompasses works from 1900 to now, which utilise a range of materials including The Westbury Quilt 1900 by Misses Hampson; Frances (Budden) Phoenix’s doilies and embroideries; Thanakupi’s ceramics; Ewa Pachuka’s sprawling sculpture Landscape and Bodies 1972 made from crocheted hemp and sisal; Vivienne Binns’ Tower of Babel 1989–2014 comprising almost 100 individual dioramas; Esme Timbery’s installation Shellworked Slippers 2008 and r e a’s Resistance 1996 textile flag.

What have been some of the unique challenges in designing this show?

Justene Williams’ immersive installation Given that/You put a spell on/mine uterus 2014 uses found objects drawn from the Australian suburban vernacular, including a Ford Falcon ute, fluorescent lights, a bar fridge and a BBQ. We quickly realised the Gallery’s freight lift is not long enough to accommodate the ute, and so have been speaking with Justene about getting it cut in half in order to get it into the Gallery and reassembling the work within the space.

There are several works in Know My Name that involve suspended elements. Across the galleries, ceiling heights varying from 2.8m to 12m high, with some spaces having extremely limited rigging points. In these instances, the design is informed by the architecture. We have to think creati­­vely working with an engineer to determine a suitable hanging system and ensure the work can be installed in a safe way.

Describe the collaborative relationship with the curators.

Know My Name is co-curated by Deborah Hart and Elspeth Pitt, assisted by Yvette Dal Pozzo. The curators and I responded to the need to redesign the exhibition in a short time frame by mobilising our creativity and passion to progress the project. We navigated the uncertainty of the situation by being incredibly supportive of each other during such a challenging time. The increased gallery space allowed us to introduce large scale works by Kathy Temin, Mikala Dwyer and Simryn Gill. Communication was key and working from home allowed for longer, more intensive design sessions.

Describe the collaborative relationship with artists.

It’s such a privilege and so rewarding to connect directly with artists to better understand their intention for their work. I aim to be sensitive to the artist needs, bringing my experience and knowledge of the galleries as physical spaces to find suitable design outcomes.

We’ve been fortunate to have many artists including Barbara Campbell, Janet Laurence, and Micky Allan visit the Gallery to discuss the location and form of their works. We are collaborating with Micky to design a zone within the exhibition that emulates her 1978 exhibition A Live-in Show performance, in which she disrupted the typical gallery experience and transformed the gallery into a domestic space where visitors could make themselves at home. We are working with Micky to select furniture pieces together, and the carpeted room will be populated with collection works of art by Micky and her contemporaries as well as items from Micky’s home.

Tell us about some of the some of the extraordinary works of art you are accommodating in the exhibition. What are some of their specific needs?

Visitors start the exhibition with a room containing 12 works dedicated to the ancestral story of the Seven Sisters, including a new major commission from the Tjanpi Desert Weavers. This work contains seven life-sized woven figures, sitting under a colourful, suspended dome structure that glistens with lights to mimic the night sky. The dome is over 4m wide and will arrive in eight pieces.

Mikala Dwyer’s Square Cloud Compound 2010 requires at least a 14m x 14m room with a minimum height of 4.5 metres. A circle of 10 poles surround a colourful tent structure that are suspended from the ceiling using an assortment of pre-stretched black and tan Razzamatazz stockings.

Simryn Gill’s Forking tongues 1992 involves cutlery and chillies meticulously placed in a 6m diameter spiral on the gallery floor. The lender has asked we source the dried chillies, which we will freeze for several weeks pre-install to ensure no insects travel into the Gallery with them.

Tell us about the collaboration with Gemma Smith. What special impact does this unique partnership have on the exhibition as a whole?

The Gallery has commissioned painter Gemma Smith to devise a colour palette for the Know My Name exhibition walls. Gemma’s concept explores the palest end of the colour spectrum with an emphasis on subtlety. With such a diverse range of works of art within the exhibition, this thoughtful concept complemented the exhibition perfectly. Gemma is a talented colourist and provided a beautiful hand painted A4 card with 15 colours to start. I used this as a springboard to select Dulux paint samples which we painted out on larger panels. Holding up the large swatch boards within the gallery lighting revealed which colours were suitable or needed to be reduced to half or quarter strength. We continued this process until we selected our final colours. Working with Gemma has been like travelling through these familiar galleries with a fresh set of eyes. Her innovative perspective encouraged me to think more critically about the progression of colours on the walls and how to generate ‘rules’ for the way these colours intersect.

Is there a particular aspect of the exhibition you are looking forward to experiencing once the exhibition is installed?

I’m looking forward to walking through this comprehensive exhibition which occupies almost half of the Level 1 galleries and appreciating its scale. There has been a history of gender imbalance in many art galleries around the world. This exhibition is an opportunity to celebrate great women artists and appreciate their perspective on the world.

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now is on display at the National Gallery 14 Nov 2020 – 9 May 2021.