Andy Cummins: Pātaka Exhibitions Officer
6 Sep 2024
This article first appeared in The Post on 6 September 2024
This article first appeared in The Post on 6 September 2024
We work with the curators, and very often also the artists, to help guide their ideas and vision for an exhibition through to its practical delivery. Essentially, we hang the art, but in more complicated installations we design, advise, schedule, sub-contract, troubleshoot and generally duck and dive our way through to the most cohesive and feasible solution.
An exhibitions officer needs to be able to work across most construction trades and be tinkerers as well; turning our hand to everything from display lighting and AV to art and object handling and a lot more. Being a jack-of-all-trades, a generalist, is useful, but it can also be frustrating.
Sometimes, it’s as simple as “hang these framed artworks there”. More often there are some curly requests, which often begin with, “Hey, we have this idea …” That’s when things can get interesting.
Mostly it’s about finding a balance between the artistic vision and the practicalities.
We strive to meet the artist or curator’s vision while also keeping check on reality – obviously galleries and museums have to work within a range of constraints. The process can be emotional, but I’m always aiming for that moment of coming together around a solution and a consensus where we’re all-in, gunning for it.
We may not always get to the ultimate solution, but hopefully as near to it.
Sometimes, challenges can come from the seemingly simplest things; hanging a small picture on a wall only to find the wall has something weird going on or the hanging system is fried. Contrast that with the more gnarly requests like an artist wanting to pour 120sqm of blue concrete on the floor of the gallery.
You joined Pātaka last year after fourteen years with the Adam Art Gallery – how did you discover exhibition work?
Mostly through luck and opportunity; I’ve had no formal training. I was initially asked to join an exhibition crew on a casual basis due to my practical skills – largely gained from working as a commercial painter and landscape gardener.
I learnt art handling on the job from a couple of particularly talented people, but I’ve accepted I’ll never know everything. I need to stay open and curious to continue to develop techniques and systems to apply to whatever comes at me.
I now approach new projects with an equal measure of openness and wariness. I ask what will work, how can that be improved, can it be more efficient? And I temper that with what might not work, where are the pinch points, what’s the worst case scenario and can this be mitigated?
I do a lot of thinking, sketching and talking. I ask a lot of questions.
Anton and I worked together to refine the composition and layout of his exhibition, which I then 3d-modelled to develop a support system to hold up the pou.
There were some logistics and supply issues to manage, including the ten enormous bags of river stones needed for the pou to “stand in”. These had to be handwashed to remove the silt coating each stone. Luckily I got them in early, which allowed time for this. There’s always a certain amount of the unknown that reveals itself in the process, so we try to plan for as much as we can so things can morph during the installation.
Working with Anton was really rewarding – his enthusiasm and passion for the project and the solutions we offered kept up the momentum. In the end, we felt the concept had been realised as best it could. That’s what makes my role so satisfying.
