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THE RENDEZVOUSOUTOFLINE PRESENTS...

JOHN JESPERSENSOPHIE KILVINGTON

EMILY HUGHESLUCILLE JACKSONANDY HORSFORTHABIGAIL BROMBY

LILY BROCKFLO BINGLEY-HALL

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THE IDEA...

At the end of our first semester a tutor approached us with a brief that called for students to respond to the exhibition, ‘Intimacy’, at the Whitecloth Gallery in Leeds. The brief entailed holding both a participatory event and curating an exhibition that would run along side and compliment Rokas Darulis’s existing exhibition for a period of 10 days.

Darulis’s editorial fashion photography touched on intimacy in quite a literal sense. As a group we decided that we would like to approach things from a different angle and explore the idea of unwanted intimacy that can occur from awkward social situations. We came up with a number of activities for guests to partake in, all of which we could document and use for our exhibition. This initial idea eventually evolved into ‘The Rendezvous - An Evening of Happenings’ held at Melbourne Street studios, Leeds.

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Promotional flyers for the event that were distributed at

the Rokas Darulis exhibition private view event. We used

members of the Outofline team as the backdrop to these designs and mirrored the

circular format of our logo to maintain an identity for the

event and collective.

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Outofline attended the private view of ‘Intimacy’ by Rokas Darulis at the Whitecloth Gallery in Leeds. As our event was a direct response to the photography work displayed in the exhibition and based around the theme of intimacy. It was a great opportunity for us to gain inspiration for our event and view the work first hand. We also used it as a chance to promote the event to the public.

The exhibition itself was described by the White Cloth gallery as a ‘unique exhibition by acclaimed editorial photographer lays bare the subject of intimacy.’

The work was hung beautifully on a neutral background and lit with studio lights to further excentuate the editorial nature of the images. The mixture of muses used within the photographs showed us the varying levels of intimacy and emotional connection that Rokas has with the models he uses in his work.

THE INSPIRATION...

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What is your favourite piece?That’s a hard question, I don’t have a favourite piece, I remember each photoshoot I have done, and they’re all different.

Whats more important in your work: Content or Technique? As a student, technique was more important, learning how to do things but now I find content is more important as my photography is simple.

Do you know your models?Some of them I do, some of them are professional models.

Is it hard to work with models?Sometimes, the professional ones don’t need too much direction so I can focus more on the photograph, and I enjoy the laid back photo shoots with them, whereas models starting out need more direction and as well as photographing them I need to tell them what to do, which is draining. I applied to do Graphic Design at Leeds, but I applied a year before. A year is a long time, and by then I had changed my mind and applied to do Photography in Middlesex.

THE INTERVIEW...

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We used a variety of methods to promote the event at Melbourne Street Studios. We created a blog to keep the public up to date with the progress of the event and exhibition and used a number of social media platforms to ensure our event was promoted to a wide audience. Melbourne Street Studios listed our event on their website, Twitter and Facebook accounts to promote our event. The flyers and posters were distributed at the gallery space and around Uni along with an announcement on the course website to make other students and staff aware of ‘The Rendezvous’. These promotion methods ensured a good turn out to the event and made the night a huge success.

THE PROMOTION...

outoflinepresents.blogspot.co.uk

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Before the event we had to consider certain logistics regarding the event and exhibition spaces. We had meetings with Melbourne Street Studios where we viewed the space and liaised with the team to ensure our event would run as smoothly as possible. This included health and safety forms, insurance and obiding to the contract. We also had to ensure the funcitionality of the event space and decide how we could utilise it to best suit our needs.

We met Annie at the Whitecloth Gallery and discussed the content of our exhibition and how it would be hung. This was the first ‘professional’ exhibition we have all curated, so executing it to the highest standard was essential for both parties. Melbourne Street Studios and Whitecloth Gallery were extremely helpful and ensured we were well informed about every detail.

THE PLANNING...

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To ensure we were efficient with our time we were all allocated different roles to contribute towards the event. This ranged from liaising with the space, cake making, sourcing equipment, promotion and decoration. We all worked collaboratively to add the final touches to the space before the event took place. We named each activity and designed banners for each of them. These banners created a running theme throughout the space to tie all the tasks together. We supplied refreshments which were kindly funded by the University staff. Other costs incurred during this project were funded by ourselves, this included T-shirts that we wore on the night and ‘Rude Eats’. All photography equipment and lighting was provided by the University or ourselves.

THE SET UP...

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Rude Eats - Our in-house novelty cake baking experts Flo and Luci provided us with some deliciously explicit cakes. These were sold to help cover costs incurred over the course of the project.

Say Cheese - Abi oversaw the operation of our photo booth. She also put her sewing skills to the test and created a double headed jumper that guests had to get in and out of with eachother. This played around with the ideas of personal space and invisible boundaries that we have with people who we aren’t close with.

Speed Date - Lily played cupid for the night and took charge of our speed dating with a twist. Paper fortune tellers were created to encourage highly personal topics for conversations that we might even struggle to have with our closest friends.

THE ACTIVITIES...

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Confess - Johnny encouraged all our guests to take some weight off their shoulders and share a confession with the group. To take things a step further each guest was asked to be photographed with their confession, with the option of covering their face if it was anything too incriminating.

Question time - Andrew invited guests to think about what intimacy meant to them and write it on our specially prepared wall. There was definitely some ‘interesting’ responses...

Welcome - Emily stretched her hospitality skills to the limit and made sure every guest was greeted with a friendly embrace. Sophie was there with her camera ready to capture the bemused expressions of guests mid-hug.

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The success of the event was better than expected, we had a great turn out even thought the weather was terrible! Everyone that attended got involved with the activities and we got some fantastic material for the exhibition. Melbourne Street Studios were a great help and everything went according to plan.

On reflection, we could have increased our level of promotion to attract a wider audeience. We could have also expanded the activities to the upstairs space. However, on this occasion last minute changes to the collaborative meant we were restricted to the amount of tasks we could supervise. We have all learnt valuable skills in collaboration and negotiation that are paramount to the success of any event or project.

THE EVENT...

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The event gave us enough material to create a considered and intriguing exhibition. There was a good variety of images from various activities that we curated along with Annie from the Whitecloth Gallery. This experience has equipt us with the skills, confidence and knowledge to approach galleries in the future.

The area we were presented with to exhibit our work was adjacent to the Darulis exhibition. This meant visitors to the gallery could view both sets of work simultaneiously and make the connection between theme and content.

Our images were exhibited for 10 days in the gallery space, a huge priviledge for us as the gallery has been home to a variety of well regarded photographers work.

THE EXHIBITION...

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THANKS TO...

Whitecloth Gallery

Melbourne Street Studios

Leeds Metropolitan University

Graphics Arts & Design

All participants of the event

Created by Emily Hughes, John Jespersen & Sophie Kilvington.