Work Experience Day 3

Today was split into two parts. I was at the warehouse really early (7am) to help load the tools on a truck. The guys were going out on a 'speed hang' where they had to hang 40 works in only a few hours before a show opened. There is a lot to take, tool kit, fixings for as many different picture frame and wall types as needed, ladders, spirit levels, drills and a percussion drill for hard walls. They thought the hang was pressurised and I couldn't go along. I made everyone tea then had a break.

Next I helped Martin with IT. We set up a work station, computer and router for his colleague. This is a work station for the warehouse where all the logging in and out of items happens. They use a program called filemaker to log the details of the artworks and all the dates in and out, also the details of the description of the package and if there are special requirements. A lot of the works have 'condition checks' when they come in. That is a written description of the object, notes if anything is wrong with it, plus photos.

Two conservators came in to work on some paintings. This was minor repairs, I think they were filling in losses on old pictures, matching the original colours and cleaning them, taking off the dirt from the surface. We moved the works for them, they were all in wooden travel frames. This is a shallow wooden frame into which the painting is fixed with brackets or metal plates. When it's going out it has polythene taped over the front for protection. There are handles at the sides and everyone said they're easier to move than if the work was in a crate and safer than just what the call a 'soft wrap' that's polythene and tissue or bubblewrap or jiffy ( a thin soft foam).


The works I saw today were By Gary Hume (top - but not this one of michael jackson) and Peter Phillips (again I couldn't take a shot of the one in the warehouse so the illustration is from the internet).

Gary Hume is a painter and sculptor who uses enamel on board or aluminium sheets to make flat, colourful and kind of graphic paintings.

I preferred the Peter Phillips, they were very large shaped canvases, painted in oil paint, they are pop art from the 1960's, one with a life sized car shape coming out the bottom edge and a full sized eagle.