top of page
Search By Tags
No tags yet.
Follow Us
  • Facebook Clean
  • Twitter Clean
  • Instagram Clean

The Second Hand: Installation Week


It’s hard, staring at this empty Word document, to know where to start. How to express in a few words just how much of a roller coaster these last 10 days have been for all of us? I personally haven’t had the time to ponder these fast-paced, jam-packed days spent basically living in the gallery space. I’m still jittering because of the amount of caffeine and sugar i’ve ingested to keep me going. My limbs are still tingling due to all the emotions I’ve been through. Although we have all been preparing The Second Hand: Reworked Art Over Time for the last six months - and had spent much time scrupulously planning this installation week - none of us could fully conceptualise just how much of a ‘journey’ installation would be.

It all started when a van rolled into Somerset House on Friday the 5th of June with the temporary structure for our film booth. What had usually been an overly female environment was somewhat jolted by a team of contractors who were busy drilling, hammering, and sanding away. The galleries were then revamped over the weekend by a team of expert decorators. What a reassuring feeling to see that the wall colour we had chosen from a colour chart had come out wonderfully! As part of the installation team, it was great to see this ballet of art handlers, conservators, technicians, electricians, and decorators I had helped choreograph.

On Monday June 8th we recorded podcasts to go up on the website. From Tuesday onwards, we experienced the sheer excitement of seeing the works in the flesh once they had carefully been removed from their protective crates and polyethylene wrappings. It was Christmas all over again! The works were then carefully condition checked with the help of a raking light, binocular headband magnifiers, and the conservators’ expert knowledge.

Looking back, I salute the team of art handlers who expertly got on with their job while 12 pair of eyes looked over their every move. We were like anxious mothers looking over their children... Talking of parental emotions, we were beaming with pride when our posters went up on the railings around Somerset House, when our project unfolded in the space harmoniously, and when the vinyl for our introductory panel was successfully peeled onto the wall. For me, the cherry on the cake was seeing our exhibition come to life thanks to John Johnson’s expert lighting advice. Witnessing these finishing touches washed away the more stressful or tiresome moments, like when we went through each wall label and catalogue page with hawk-eyed scrutiny.

All in all, this was for me one of the most exciting and challenging projects I’ve worked on. There were some tense, stressful, and teary moments, but the feeling of utterly pure joy I got from working with incredible works of art made it all worth it. Even now, the works continue to unravel more meanings and surprises, more juxtapositions, correspondences, and dialogues between themselves. And now, with the private view just one day away, we can finally sit, back, relax, and enjoy it.

bottom of page