Putting together an Exhibition (2/2)

Conclusion.

Dec 14, 2023

Part 2.

The next day (which was the 2 days before the prep day where we were to hang everything in our booths) I came home from a long day of work, and started printing from 20:00. What can go wrong, I thought. Especially since I tested the printer out the day before and it seemed totally OK.

As I was printing out my first image of the day (I had about 6 left), the printer just stopped. It just… broke. The error basically said “I’m done, you need to fix me. Somehow”. and I knew it was over, as I’ve used the same Canon PRO-10S for 7 years. Printers are pretty fragile, especially when it comes to consumer-grade ones, and it showed signs of breakdown a few times already.

I thought it was over.

There was just no way I could get everything ready on time. Asking any printer for A3+ prints with custom sizes (since I already bought the frames and mattes) would take at least a week. I considered my options for about 5 minutes and the easiest way out was to just give it up.

After doing a quick google search, I found out that Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku was open until 21:00. And I still had 45 minutes left. I was already about $1500 in with the equipment I bought for exhibit setups and the paper/mattes/frames, and felt like I just couldn’t back down.

I ended up dashing to my car and heading to Yodobashi camera. I parked my car at 20:45, went in the store, asked the store manager if they had canon photo printers. They had exactly 1 left of the one I wanted. I bought it, and carried the gigantic 20kg back to my parking space that was a 10 minute walk away. Probably one of the most intense training sessions of the year. And it basically didn’t fit in my car, but I somehow coped without dying.

Looking back at this image, I honestly don’t know how this fit in my car.

Setting up the printer took about an hour, and I printed everything out by midnight.

The next day my partner came to help me and we somehow managed to frame everything by 2 AM.

Crammed all the framed images into my car, somehow.

Setting up the exhibition really wasn’t any less challenging than the previous days. First off, people thought I was batshit insane carrying my images with my car. Then maybe partly because of my ignorance, but what was to come was also totally unexpected.

The gallery owners took me to this space and basically said “your turn”!

I heard that people were readily available to help me out for set-up… But as I started, I realized that in fact, no. I basically had to drill holes, make sure they’re straight, yatayatayata all myself (well, technically, my partner helped me so me and my partner).

Probably my fault, but it was a bit odd as the gallery organizers were in front of me, but didn’t really offer to help. In fact I can see them eyeing me, checking me out, seeing if I can hang everything without fucking it up. Things that I had to do myself didn’t end there— drilling, framing, creating the labels, creating price lists, etc.

If this was told to me beforehand I would’ve been somewhat ok with it, but the circumstances were strange though. I was an “invited artist” (in fact, the only one), but yet the gallery owners were testing me. Without my consent too, since I had no idea this was a “trial” for me. This was an ongoing issue (at least to me) during the whole event, as they would swoop by my booth and make a few passive aggressive comments like “Are you sure you want to keep it at that pricing?” or “I personally wouldn’t design the labels like that”, then end the convo with “well, it’s up to you though”. Clearly, it wasn’t since they would bug me about the same thing for days until I caved in and did it the way they wanted.

Honestly I would’ve just enjoyed them helping me out and advising me without being a dick about it, or simply if they actually gave me creative freedom.

But who knows, maybe it was just that I’m a spoiled brat - I’m pretty used to gallery owners or the exhibition organizers helping me out or putting a show together without too much of my input.

The conclusion: The show itself was a success. It was a steep learning curve for me, and without any prep time at all, having to work with people that I’m not too used too. It was rough. I couldn’t have done it without my partner (In fact, if she didn’t push me to pursue this opportunity I would’ve just given up right after my printer crashed lol). But, it was a small win for me and my career. I think.

The learning: After all that poking around and snooping, I found out that the gallery that was eyeing me didn’t sell a thing. And, from what I saw, no one came to their booth for days. Everyone else was extremely surprised at how many people came to mine though ;)

And that’s the learning. This whole “successful traditional hardcore artist” thing is childsplay. Maybe for the top 0.01% of artists and art investors, it matters. But this just simply isn’t the way to go in this modern age, for most people. This endeavour has made me really appreciate the awesome people that follow me and my work. You guys showed up, physically. You guys supported me. And for those that came, I made sure to stand up and chat for a while. We did that, and we had a great time talking about art and life together.

I’ve always been skeptical about social media, especially Youtube, for artists. But this has really made me rethink my strategy. The way I’ve been able to connect with like-minded people is awesome. It was hilarious because a good number of people that came to see my booth was absolutely swagged out. And you guys were the nicest people in the event. The other gallery and booth owners asked me “why are a bunch of cool people endlessly showing up to your booth?”, and they just have no idea.

I’ll show a few more photos of the people that came by. You guys made my day!