It was a tricky thing to photograph my installation since it was quite dark. My thanks go out to Jenna who took photos (on film!), but her camera was fooled by my exhibit and so the resulting photographs were washed out. I planned to make a second attempt with my digital camera—manually stopped down—on the last day of the exhibit before packing up. Yesterday, I brought my camera and tripod but left my 128mb card at home (feh). Instead, I had only the measly 16mb card that originally came with the camera. I tried to make the most of the four pictures I squeezed out of it.

From left to right (click on images for larger photos):
1) The cabinet on its pedestal. The catalog sits on the shelf. The artist statement is contained in a silvered, distressed frame (to match the cabinet hardware, natch) mounted on the wall behind the pedestal.
2) A 3/4 view of the outer doors and inner doors opened. The drawers are velvet lined, faced with marbled paper (by Galen Berry) and opened via grosgrain ribbon tabs. Each drawer is labeled.
3) Section “B” with its contents artfully exposed (artifact styling courtesy of Caton). A “dramatization” (heh!) of the visitor’s experience—normally the artifacts are not hanging out of the drawers like this. It looks neat, though, huh?
4) A close-up of the catalog. (View a pdf of the catalog content [2MB].)

I delivered my cabinet and catalog to the exhibit space this afternoon. Having the cabinet not in the house is really weird. I worry about it as if it was a child. Last I saw it, it was sitting on a piece of plywood which was set upon a chair. The chair seat angled back so the piece is tilted. The only level option was the floor of the Stevens which is, frankly, filthy right now. I hope it doesn’t settle strangely, warp or do other unpredictable things. It is not the sturdiest piece of cabinetry.

I’m sorry I had to abandon you, cabinet. I hope the student volunteers treat you with care. I will see you on Monday!

For all of you who wanted a peak inside once it was finished, you’ll have to come to the exhibit. I took some pictures for the sake of documentation for the thesis paper, but they aren’t that great. It’s a piece that’s meant to be interacted with and pictures don’t convey much. Okay, maybe I’ll show some close-ups of the interior. Tomorrow. Or something. Eh. I’ve spent too much time writing blog entries this evening. I should be painting or cooking!

To my extreme disappointment (also terror, horror, nightmare, whatever you can think of that is very very bad), I was unable to completely finish the cabinet. However, I did make it fully functional and interactive so that the cabinet could be explored and the collection accessed. This is what I presented to the thesis committee.

Two of the doors still need letters � “B” and “C.” The gray drawers have yet to be covered with fabric. All drawers will have numbers affixed to their fronts. All drawers will be faced with marbled paper. It’s probably about 12 hours more work, I’m estimating. These changes will be completed for the exhibit on May 22nd. I think I will focus on that instead of a super fancy installation wall treatment or something.

Though it wasn’t completely finished, the piece was strong enough conceptually and functionally that I wasn’t cast out from PNCA or anything like that. I was docked for it, for sure, but I passed (whether you passed or failed is the only thing you are told at the time) and received points for ambition. Loose ends aside, the thesis panel seemed to get a kick out of it and I greatly enjoyed watching them poke through the drawers, look at the stuff and wonder about their owners. I garnered praise for creating the accompanying catalog, as that made the project richer on many levels. I was particularly pleased when one of the panel members read out loud from the catalog a bit that he found particularly intriguing. All things considered, I was pretty proud.

So, yeah. I expected the whole thesis presentation thing to be much worse. I worked on the thing round the clock for the last three weeks and I’m still trying to figure out how it could have taken me less time. I don’t know. It’s a really complex, labor intensive piece!

So, it’s over! For the sake of posterity, I’m going to play a bit of catch-up here. I’ve been working round the clock the past couple of days and haven’t had a chance to post more pictures in progress. That chance is now here.

April 16, 7:44 pm. Building the boxes. Bases have been cut to fit the quirks of each shelf. Fronts, backs and sides have been cut for all drawers with similar measurements (so they could be cut from the same template). Four drawers completed.

Inner doors cut and covered.

April 17, 3 am. All drawers completed � some still require some adjustment in order to fit easily into their compartment.

After this, I was pretty consumed with finishing the thing and didn’t photograph more. Here’s a hint about the final outcome - it took 35 minutes minimum *per drawer* to cover those drawers with fabric. And that wasn’t the only thing left to do. You do the math (my presentation was 11am Monday morning).

I’m finding this visual record keeping of my progress to be really helpful. It’s so easy to lose track of everything one does, and I hope this will give me a good sense of what a project like this required should I think about it in the future.

So, yesterday I covered the exterior edges and the vertical and horizontal divisions with black cloth. It wasn’t that difficult, but it was very tedious. Each of the shelves is covered individually.

I lined the outer doors.

I picked up the book from the bindery. I was disappointed for reasons that I won’t go into here. But it’s done and lessons were learned. It proved to be a useful reference for following stages of the project.

I mixed up some marbling size out of methycellulose, ammonia and vinegar. Thank goodness it seemed to turn out right - my previous attempts (which I’ve been using as adhesive) are just lumps of goo like something out of Ghostbusters.

I treated some paper with alum (no pix of that, sorry) and hung it on the clothesline in the basement.

I cut bases and fronts for all the drawers - keeping in mind their eventual contents. Each base and front was individually fitted to its home to account for screwiness. The bases are all about the same depth, except for two that had to accommodate extra long contents. This was also pretty darn tedious work. If you look closely you’ll see the first set of inner door hinges, too.

As a break from measuring and cutting, I mucked about with testing liquid acrylics on the marbling size in a tiny tupperware container. I achieved interesting, but not very promising results.

I made a marbling comb out of toothpicks.

I burned out and went to sleep.