Many hands make Light work

On Monday this week the newest show at the Norman Rea Gallery, Langwith College had its private view. The theme is Light. It was coordinated by the Langwith Arts Committee, the group responsible for the continuous exhibitions which have adorned the walls of the Norman Rea for the last 2 years. The main director of the events for the coordination of Light was Hannah Mumby, an active member of the society and History of Art student.

She explained why the committee decided on the theme of Light, “Because the Summer Term Shows are usually student based, we wanted a theme that was rather vague and flexible, in order to encourage lots of different mediums and applications. It is a broadly interpretable theme which we decided as a group. It worked well because of all the different submissions.”

This is the first show which was open to free submissions of mainly York University students work, and it has been very successful, with a large body of eclectic applications. The committee selected the final pieces with a diverse feel in mind, and the final result is a pleasing mixture of mainly Photography, Painting and an installation piece. I asked Hannah how she made the curatorial decisions, “I like to organise things in terms of colour and shape. Its tricky making curatorial decisions, especially when there is such a broad theme as Light. The Norman Rea Gallery is an awkward space. We put things against the wall to see what looked best. We just had to try to break up the photographs with the paintings a bit.”

The exhibition has already courted a mix of reactions, from perplexed Chemistry and Physics students wondering into the gallery after never being aware of its existence, to angry English Lecturers. Hannah commented “We’ve already had some complaints about the show which I quite like. John the provost came up to me today and said some English Lecturers were offended by the word “fucking” which is included on the installation piece about epilepsy. We’ve never had anything offensive before. Any reaction is welcome.”
In hindsight, Hannah is pleased with the show, “It was pretty hectic, and the work was all put together in the three days over the weekend. I think it came together well in the end.” With content ranging from misty shots of a deserted urban landscape lit with smudged streetlamp light, to bright garish illustrational painting, to aesthetically beautiful and narrative rich grainy photographs and controversial installation pieces, the show certainly achieves its aim of representing a wide student body of work. Hannah was keen to emphasise how much of a team effort the realisation of the exhibition has been, highlighting a comment made by Amy Tobin whilst hanging the show, “Many hands make ‘Light’ work”.

Light is showing at the Norman Rea Gallery, Langwith College York University from Monday 17th May untill Frday 4th June 2010.