Morna Hinton
Life in a Shoebox
​
Life in a Shoebox was a collaborative project with a group of fellow artists. I volunteered to be on the curatorial team and soon found that I was having many general discussions with the coordinator and administrator, due to my previous experience working at the V&A. As some pieces didn’t arrive until the second installation day we had to plan around them using images of the work as a guide. There were some frustrations, and I learned a lot about collaborating in a egalitarian team.I realised that my previous work experience was good preparation in some ways, but it meant I had to do a lot of ‘sitting on my hands’ (perhaps not enough!). An exhibition in a tiny fringe gallery space is very different to organising a project at the V&A.
​
In addition to being one of the curators, I offered to copy edit the text for the leaflet. This was a happy experience, due to a harmonious working relationship with the person doing the graphic design, who is similarly well-organised. I feel I also made a significant contribution towards helping some of the overseas students in particular, in terms of expressing what they wanted to say about their work.
Key skills
-
Curation
-
Mentoring
-
Editing
Learning points
-
Fringe gallery context
-
The need to let go
-
Collaboration
Life in a Shoebox installation shots
17m2 installation shot
17m2
17m2 was a follow-on exhibition to Shoebox with largely the same group of artists. This time I opted to just do the editing, for which there were no other volunteers – my experience at the V&A has particular relevance here as I was responsible for introducing their first label-writing guidelines and subsequently line-managed the Museum’s copy editor. Although not a trained editor myself, I am pretty eagle-eyed when proof-reading, and understand principles such as consistency, house style and tone. As per Shoebox, there was a fair amount of chasing required to extract the text from participants, but I just kept following up relentlessly until I had it all (persistence is one of my strengths). Working with the person doing the graphic design, we managed to keep things business-like for the final critical stage, despite some differences in working styles. The leaflet was printed on time.
Key skills
-
Persistence
-
Attention to detail
-
Meeting deadlines
Learning points
-
Variety of working styles
One That Holds Everything
For One That Holds Everything, the Crypt Gallery show, I took on two roles – research and editing. Initially there were five or six people on the research team but most dropped out for various reasons, so it was left with me and one other. I made an arrangement to see the archivist at Camden local history centre and wrote up notes about findings from there plus online desk research that I had done at home. I was interested to see how research skills that I had used in my work at the V&A and previous academic study could apply in my Fine Art practice. It was my research into St Pancras that gave the show its title – One That Holds Everything derives from the Greek meaning behind St Pancras' name – and was the most popular choice of title due to the way it suggested a large and diverse exhibition.
​
On the editing front, I first had to deal with the press release and poster text, which was all done in a very short time just before I went on holiday. One of my aims with this exhibition was to try to be more patient, and this was commented on both with the press release and the leaflet editing, where there were some issues with the graphic design programme. I helped problem-solve here by suggesting we used Word for the leaflet, as that way I could edit directly on-screen and thus speed up the process. In general, I tried to be constructive and positive, and particularly to acknowledge the work that the coordinators were doing, as this can be a bit of a thankless task. I feel it is fair to say that I was viewed as a key member of the active core team, especially over the summer.
Crypt installation shot
Key skills
-
Research
-
Patience
-
Lateral thinking
-
Being supportive
Learning points
-
Demands of site-specific projects
Sensing Place
​
A friend of mine is a barrister at Cloisters Chambers, which hosts exhibitions in their rooms. I asked about the possibility of showing there and was put in touch with the person who administers the scheme. I decided to invite two other MFA students to exhibit with me as I thought it would be interesting to curate a group show together, as well as spreading the organisational load. I took on the role of official point of contact on the artist side. I discussed with the other two how we might present our work as a coherent exhibition because initial feedback suggested that Cloisters thought our work was rather disparate. We came up with Sensing Place as a theme that bridged our common interests in landscape of various sorts, and the human presence in it. Cloisters invited us to meet with their Art Committee in July to present our work, after which they agreed the exhibition, which ran Jan-April 2018.
Sensing Place installation shots
The installation required that we use Cloisters' dado rails for hanging so we researched a hanging system based on polypropylene wires and adjustable clips. Installation was carried out on a single day, and needed creativity to ensure a good mix of our work across all the spaces. We decided early on to install in a way that revealed the visual connections and contrasts between our pieces. We also had to consider scale. Exhibiting art in a working environment (and one with lilac walls at that) is quite unlike a white cube, or a site like the Cyrpt Gallery. There is a real challenge in making the work hold its own without overly dominating. One of my roles within the project was to put together the information and price list, which involved writing, editing and graphic design. The work that I presented consisted entirely of paintings and was an opportunity to view those completed during the MFA alongside earlier work. It was an act of integration that allowed me to see more clearer the points of continuity and development. Our brief had mentioned not including anything likely to shock or upset clients, and, although it had been unremarked on when we were doing the hang, in hindsight I should have thought more carefully about one of my paintings, A Tree Marks the Spot, which shows a tree in a graveyard. Mid-way through the exhibition we got a request that it be removed because Cloisters deals with a fair number of fatal injury cases.
Key skills
-
Negotiation & influencing
-
Exhibition development
-
Installation
-
Writing
-
Graphic design
Learning points
-
Exhibiting in a corporate environment
-
Use of network to generate opportunity
Columbia Threadneedle installation shots, with my painting Shed, on the left below
Columbia Threadneedle Figurative Art Prize 2018
​
I was delighted to be included in the exhibition for the Columbia Threadneedle Figurative Art Prize 2018. There were two stages to the selection process - an initial online application followed by delivering work in person to be reviewed. I went from being one in 4,000 online applications to being one in 100 exhibited at the Mall Galleries.
​
As somebody whose painting practice sits firmly within figurative art, this was a step towards 'finding my tribe', and was a big boost to my self-belief as a painter. However, the response to my inclusion has been quite instructive. 'Non-art-world' friends and family thought it was amazing, and were impressed by the venue on the Mall. People within, or with some knowledge of, the art world were generally very positive, but others made no comment. From that I deduced that this is not a competition that is particularly cutting edge or universally well thought-of within contemporary art practice. Given that it was set up as a riposte to the Turner Prize, and was approved of by reactionary critics such as Brian Sewell, it is perhaps not such a surprising response. Nonetheless, I believe that international prizes like this are important, and the work included was very varied, including at least one artist who I met several months later at Collyer Bristow, where she had a work in a recent exhibition there.
Key skills​
-
Understanding where my practice 'fits'
-
Application writing
Learning points
-
Competitions and awards have different constituencies
Engine ChatChat
​
In March 2018 I was selected for a two-week peer support and critique residency at the Griffin Gallery in West London. A group of ten UAL postgraduate students and alumni took turns to present our work and discuss that of others as well as more general issues relating to living and working as an artist. The residency proved a very good spur to complete a couple of different trial edits of my Royal Iris film. One, Iris, was lyrical and quite romantic in its tone, working with a composer who was fairly ‘classical’ in his approach. It took birds (pigeons, crows and seagulls) as the thread linking together archival and contemporary footage and still photographs. The other film, Motor Vessel, was an experiment in using subtitles based on found text, with no sound. Neither was completely successful, but ChatChat facilitator Elizabeth Murton set a generous and supportive tone. This was good, because the feedback was direct and honest! It made me realise that I still had a way to go in terms of resolving my final piece, but I really enjoyed the conversations we had over the two weeks.
The Griffin Gallery
Key skills
-
Concise presentation of my practice
-
Engaging in a supportive critical environment
Learning points
-
Value of honest feedback from fellow artists
Future Plans
​
I am currently in the process of applying for a residency at Canary Wharf New District, which would continue my interest in the Thames and urban landscape. I intend to use museum and archive resources such as the Museum of Docklands to inform this residency and will return to poetry as a means of deepening my thinking about a subject. I would also like to have further collaborations with composers or others, and will be applying for a number of awards and exhibitions such as the Hix Award, Bloomberg New Contemporaries and the Zsuzsi Roboz Art Scholarship.