Yesterday we had the Private View for the Powis Art Exhibition. It was the culmination of 10 months research, work and planning. The event went very well with lots (perhaps too much) wine flowing and more olives than we could possibly eat.

The party
The party

The Private View was in the afternoon from 2pm to 4pm. We started off the event in the Ballroom with Bill’s tent and moved on to the Annex where my work was on display. We had to do this because for the first hour the annex was inaccessible as a group of people on a shooting party was eating dinner in there. This slight overlap of events turned out to be a good thing in my opinion as it meant that we could divide the time between looking at and discussing Bill’s work and then mine. I think the guests felt that they could spend a good amount of time with both rather than feeling they had to flit between the two.

The wine is flowing
The wine is flowing

Both Bill and I received lots of positive feedback from the guests to the Private View and staff at Powis who we saw yesterday, which was great to hear. I find that I get so involved in an art project that I get to the point where I can no longer see it objectively. I get a buzz from seeing the reactions of people to my work and hearing what they have to say.

My artwork on display
My artwork on display (before the guests arrived)

My aim with this exhibition is that hopefully it will make people think a bit more deeply about our relationship with objects. Particularly in this case, our relationship as curators, owners, restorers, preservers and observers.

The best piece of feedback I received came from one of the members of staff I had interviewed for my videos. He came along to the Private View and he said that he liked the way my artwork made a connection with the objects in the castle. He added that he thought that finding a way to connect visitors to the castle with the objects in an interesting way was something that places such as Powis Castle needed in order to engage the wider public with the things they display. That really pleased me as that sums up my aim very well.

The exhibition will now run until 28th November so all I can do is hope that lots of people stop to watch the videos, look at the drawings, and hopefully leave me some feedback or fill out my questionnaire about the cat.

Today, the day after the Private View, I find I am in a bit of a state of disbelief. Do I really have an art exhibition at Powis Castle? How did that happen?