Project statement

For my post-graduate curatorial project it is my intention to develop the exhibition design for a Graham Percy retrospective, curated by Gregory O’Brien. The exhibition is to open in April 2011 at the Gus Fisher Gallery, and is to tour key New Zealand galleries throughout 2011.

Best known as an illustrator of children’s books, Graham Percy was active from the early 1960s in New Zealand until his death in 2008. The 2011 exhibition, titled “The imaginative life and times of Graham Percy,” is to focus on works from throughout the artist’s career, beginning with his contributions to The New Zealand School Journal and his book cover designs (including Bruce Mason’s End of the Golden Weather) from the early 1960s. After the artist’s relocation to London, his practice focussed on children’s book illustration, and he worked on over 100 books, notable among them Gerald Durrel’s The Fantastic Flying Adventure (1987) and a 1998 edition of Kennth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. During the 1970s Percy also designed a full-length animated film in Hungary, Hugo the Hippo, which now has cult status. As well as his work for children, Percy produced several picture books for adults, including Arthouse 1994, and Imagined Histories 2007. His final series featured illustrated kiwis drawn in imagined and historical settings, such as Kiwi Ophelia and Kiwis in Paris.

Throughout his various projects, Percy’s practice remained concerned storytelling, demonstrated with his eloquently named works like Within a Rachel Whiteread installation, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy is reminded of Fingal’s Cave. His images are amusing, and broad in their range of references. Percy used his art to aid his exploration of both real and imagined spaces, and to continue his ongoing conversations with childhood. Curator Gregory O’Brien describes Percy’s work as able to “accommodate innocence and wonder without excluding knowledge, history and intelligence.”

The design of this exhibition will include creating a concept document and business plan. This will include:

• A detailed list of works, covering loan details, condition reporting and preparation of works for the exhibition;
  
• Physical plans of the Gus Fisher Gallery with plans and elevations indicating the proposed layout of the exhibition. This will include wall positions, placement of cabinets/stands, and positioning of artworks and objects within the space. It will specify all dimensions and media to be used for exhibition materials, as well as defining colours and finishes;
  
• Graphic design to be used in the exhibition such as entry signage;
  
• Development of media, including exhibition catalogues and a minisite;
  
• Development of education programmes, with emphasis on a primary children’s programme;
  
• Plan of public events;
  
• Commercial plan including the design of merchandise identity and examples;
  
• Marketing plan.