you’re sat in a cafe, waiting for a friend who has just texted to say they’ll be late. drink in front of you, you look around for a distraction. it’s then you notice on a neighbouring empty table what appears to be a photograph with a scrawled personal message. your curiosity gets the better of you and you casually reach over to grab it.
just as you suspected it’s a somewhat intimate photo – a young woman on all fours and the message ‘see you sunday, bow wow. love spot’. you turn it over for any clue as to who it’s from or who it was meant for…
.
this guerilla approach to marketing a forthcoming exhibition of photographs by francesca woodman was developed in partnership with the future ferens – a group of young people whose aim is to encourage their peers to engage with exhibitions at the ferens gallery in hull. the photos being exhibited were all given by the 18 year old woodman to her boyfriend, several featuring hand-written messages and being exhibited as part of the national ‘artists rooms on tour’ from the tate.
the original context of the images and resonance with that particular age group led us to suggest that a standard leaflet approach and corporate gallery look wouldn’t attract the audience we wanted to nor would it really communicate the intimate nature of the experience of seeing these small photographs up close (the future ferens have constructed a room-within-a-room to exhibit them). however, because ‘artists rooms’ is a nation-wide project we had to build a case for disregarding the corporate style guidelines and taking a more unorthodox approach that would work with a guerilla distribution approach. we’re grateful to the tate and the estate of francesca woodman for listening to our reasoning and agreeing to our breaking of the rules.
if you’re in or near hull look out events connected with the exhibition including a photobooth popping up around town where you can have your own woodman inspired portrait taken. the exhibition launch is this saturday at 1pm.
