INSTALLING

PREPARATION

A week or so before you hang your work, go and have another look at the space. Note the following: What kind of walls and floor it has How the present show, if any, is hung

How many sockets there are and their position. Do you need extension cables? How much power do you require from each extension? If you are plugging a lot of things in, it is always worth counting up what power you will be using before you start blowing fuses:

• amps = watts/voltage
• Any piece of electrical equipment will have the watts (W) on a label somewhere – find this
• In the UK the nominal supply voltage is 230V (volts)
• Divide your watts by 230 to get the amps
• Add up all the amps you will be using
• As the name suggests, a 13 amp extension cable should not have a load of more than 13 amps connected to it. Doing so will blow the fuse. What the lighting is like: is it adequate? Is it adjustable? Any particular problems? Note the dimensions of the walls and any doorways and staircases

Find out when you can deliver your work, when you can have access, and if there are any restrictions on the hours you can work in the space. Will you hold keys or will someone else have to open and close it?

Check on the nearest hardware and stationery shops and have a look at what range of things they stock in case you need anything during install.

Mark your tools so you can identify your own!

Checklist (short)

• Tape Measure
• Hammer
• Pencil
• Drill-driver/screwdrivers
• Spirit level
• Screws and plugs
• Note paper

Checklist (long)

Tape

Measure / Spirit level / Sandpaper Hammer / Pliers / Vacuum cleaner Drill-driver/screwdrivers / Pencil / Broom Stanley knife / Dustpan and brush Bradawl / Filing knife / Stepladder Electric drill (with percussion head for masonry) / Extension lead / Cleaning cloths Screws and plugs / Dusters Drill bits for masonry & wood / Methylated spirits String / Cotton gloves for art handling Staple gun & staples / Polyfilla / Note paper

You will be surprised how much time you need to put a show together well. Take the time to get things right; a badly hung exhibition can make even the strongest work look less than its best. Placing your work is best done on your own, or with one other whose judgement you trust. It is not a good idea to have more than three people putting together a show, unless it is a large event. If you have too many people installing, too much time can be taken up making decisions. If you are doing a group show, this may have to be arranged differently. The group will need to discuss how each artist’s work looks.

Choose one or two people to organise the placing of the work, with everyone else agreeing to accept their decisions. You might find a different solution – it will depend on the situation – but try to come to an arrangement that is practical and which satisfies most of the people involved. In a group show, often a certain work with particular requirements will start the placing process. As far as possible consider the needs of the work, and the needs of the show; this can often be in conflict with what the artists think they need. If you are showing alone, don’t forget to arrange for at least one friend to help you. If you have the luxury of doing so, take along more work than you think you will need in the exhibition.

This gives you extra choice when considering the balance and overall feel of the exhibition. You may well be surprised at how different your work looks when you get it into the space. Even though there are no rules, what is important is that your show looks professional, and that the people who have curated/installed the work look like they actually care about how it is received. Try to get the lighting, hanging, projections straight and at the best possible quality that budgets will allow.

Speak to skilled professionals in multimedia, carpentry, framing, hanging, etc. to see what the best methods are (or ask someone who has a lot of experience such as an established gallerist or art tech). If you can, employ skilled tradespeople to do work for you, and try to learn from them: wall painters, plasterers, framers, hangers, archivists, lighting techs, good curators.

PLACING YOUR WORK

Try to approach placing your work with an open mind. Try to be receptive to how things look and be prepared to experiment. Some spaces have very definite characteristics, dominant features or divisions that may help you to make decisions and suggest a starting point. The nature of the space in relation to your work may well dictate certain arrangements. Sometimes because of dimensions, a piece of work can only go in one place, for example, and you can then build the exhibition around this. Take your time in deciding where to place each work. Move things around, trying different combinations until you feel quite happy with the position and look of each piece, and with the look of the whole show.

Sometimes the two might seem incompatible, so try to achieve a good balance between the whole and the individual works. The wall surface itself may affect the look of the work. For example, a highly textured wall surface/face-brick will detract from some works more than others. If the wall surface is different in different parts of the space, this may also affect where each work goes.

If your works are placed on the floor, ask yourself how its colour and surface affects them. Bear in mind that the gallery floor may not be flat or entirely horizontal, or that it may well be completely different from your studio floor. Ask yourself if the works need to be seen in relation to one another, as a group, or as separately as possible. Consider how each work looks from all viewpoints, and from close up and afar. Consider how all the works relate to any others within view at the same time from all viewpoints. Remember that when placing works against the walls prior to hanging, they will often appear to take up more space than when they are hanging on the wall.

Get into the habit of noticing how other exhibitions are put together, and how you feel about the way they look; you can pick up many dos and don’ts like this. If work is presented well, you should be able to concentrate on the art. That is what you want.

HANGING

Before you begin, have a table or special place to keep your equipment. This will save a lot of time spent searching for things during hanging. Return everything to this place when not in use.

Common fittings/systems

Straphangers: metal hanging fixings secured to either side of your frame, stretcher frame or base. They allow the work to hang parallel to the wall and distribute the weight of the work most evenly across the frame. Straphangers can be used with screws and wall plugs or with picture hooks.

Split battens: can be used for small and large/heavy works that require extra support. A batten, angled at the top, is screwed level into the wall. A corresponding angled batten is fitted to the back of the work; if framing, you can ask for this batten to be incorporated into your frame. The two fit together. The work floats a bit away from the surface – depending on how thick the battens are. For large works, you may need to put a second batten system toward the bottom of the work – this adds strength and stops the work leaning in toward the wall. You can get metal split batten systems which are very thin, for smaller works.

Canvases on stretchers: can be hung from the middle stretcher bar, or from the top of the stretcher on two screws in the wall. The advantage of this system is that you can adjust the work laterally just by pushing the work along.

Mirror plates: aren’t used much anymore – the problem is you always see them. The good thing about them is they act as a cheaper security fixing.

Cord: not the best system but you may want it for an ‘old-fashioned’ look. Make sure it will hold the weight of the work. You can purchase cord intended for this purpose from frame makers, framing suppliers and some art supplies shops. This kind of cord, after being threaded through the rings can be twisted around itself. As strain is put on the cord, it tightens its grip. If you use any other type of cord, for example, string, you will need to ensure that it will take the weight of the work and that the knot you make does not slip. In this case, use two or more separate strands of cord (the number depending on the weight of the work), so that if one should break, the others will still hold the work.

The knot you tie should be a reef knot. A granny knot will slip if any strain is put on it, whereas a reef knot tightens (see illustration).

Steel cable: more for hanging 3D work from the ceiling. Best to use stainless steel wire – use a cable with a load five times heavier than your work. There are various cable grips that can be used with them – always use more than one grip for safety, and always try to use a system that is adjustable.

Use a hand drill for fixing into work – electric drills just don’t have as much control and cause too much vibration.

Set your height and mark the wall

Generally, eye level is the place to hang the work (the centre of the work at around 150-165cm from the floor). But, don’t feel you should rigidly stick to this rule. Allow the content of the work to dictate your presentation – just keep in mind that at around this measurement is the average comfortable eye level for viewing. You can mix it up with salon hangs or whatever you like for other aesthetic and conceptual reasons, as you please. There are no real rules. If choosing one centre height for several works, mark your height on a length of timber that you can stand upright on the floor to make measuring quicker.

Remember that your fixings will probably not be at the top of the work. Take this into account when making your drill marks. Use a long spirit-level – this allows you to mark out distances of holes on the spirit-level itself before you get onto the wall. You can then mark several holes on the wall and get them level at the same time. If you don’t have a long level, you can tape a shorter one to a straight edge.

Fixing

The screws you use for most hanging need not be any longer than three quarters of an inch. This size screw will hold quite a weight. Screws are very strong, and there is no need to give yourself extra work by using long screws. But do make sure that the drill bit you use, the wall plug, and the screw are the same numbered size, so that you have a good fit. You may often find that the wall being used is of plasterboard construction. The wood or metal uprights which hold the plasterboard should be at vertical 60cm intervals. These will hold more weight; you may have to do some exploratory drilling to find them. Sometimes you are bound to have to screw into the spaces between, which may just be plasterboard.

There are special types of plugs available from hardware shops, which expand into the cavity to provide a rigid fixing. They are more expensive, but they do work. Ask for various plasterboard fixings. If the wall is a partition wall and you have access to the other side, you can use butterfly screw fittings, also available from hardware shops. These are large bolts with a special bit which grips the wall behind. These will hold quite considerable weights.

Use shield-anchor bolts for fixing heavy things to masonry walls, ceilings or floors. Sizes: M6/M8/M10. Remember the size quoted is the size of the thread, not the whole bolt. Use a bit 6mm larger than the size. Go onto the Rawl website to look at various fixings for inspiration: www.rawlplug.co.uk Tap wall plugs in gently. Before hanging from the ceiling, find out how it is made and how strong it is – you may need to fix a plate to the ceiling to help spread loads.

Adjustments

Having the work level may not necessarily make it look level if the walls, floor or ceiling are themselves out of true. Step back and rely upon your own eye to make a final decision. One reason why works may not look straight when hung is because they are not square themselves. You can check whether this is the case by measuring the diagonals of the work; if the work is square, they will be equal. If the work is not square, you will have to compromise between what the spirit level dictates and your own measurements when hanging the work. If the work is square, there are ways of correcting a light slant caused by the hanging:

• Remove the screw holding the lower side of the work and pack the bottom of its hole with a matchstick or something similar. Then replace the screw. This will also help if the screw won’t tighten up, or if the hole is too large.

• One cause of a slant can be that one of the screws went in crooked. You can check to see if this is the case by slightly unscrewing the screw. If it is crooked, it will unscrew with a rolling action to the head. You can leave this screw only half way in, this will tend to correct the slant. Remember that the hole made by this screw will not be straight.
• You can also adjust screws by tapping with a hammer, one up and one down.
• You can wrap masking tape around the lower screw head to bolster up the height. If canvases are warped, you can use Velcro at the back of the frame to stick them to the wall. Don’t be tempted to use Velcro or other sticky products unless you are hanging something very light. So much damage is caused to works by them falling off the walls. If you must, use lots of Velcro and staple it to the wall for extra strength. Remember, sticky products will damage and mark paper – sewing pins, panel pins and magnets are good alternatives. Strengthen corners of paper works with linen tape for hanging. You can also use linen tape for hanging paper works. Linen tape is removable.

Check your walls for dirty prints or pencil marks. Snag them – keep them perfect.