After eight days of installing, the exhibition is finally ready to be revealed to the public! Manchester Art Gallery was packed and the level of excitement made for a truly wonderful experience.

During the opening there were speeches by Richard Lease, Leader of the Council, Maria Balshaw, Director of Manchester City Galleries and Whitworth Art Gallery and Joana Vasconcelos. The exhibition was formally opened by the Portuguese Ambassador, João Vallera, who spoke about how Joana and her work can be seen as a fantastic ambassador for Portugal throughout the world. Joana talked about how the exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery was important to her career as it combined exhibition spaces, a loft public space for her new commission, outdoor sites and the possibilities for a dialogue with the fine and decorative arts collections.

Wandering the galleries after the speeches and seeing all the works as a visitor to the gallery and not from the viewpoint of installation was very special, and I hope other visitors to the gallery are as impressed and intrigued by Joana Vasconcelos’s work as I was.

When Joana Vasconcelos’ Time Machine opens on February 15^th, visitors to Manchester Art Gallery will see an ambitious number of her works scattered through the gallery space, outside, in entranceways, hanging from the ceiling and even in the gallery of Craft & Design.

Some of the placements, like Spring Ghost, a crochet covered ‘Louis Ghost’ model chair, have obvious correlations to the collection and the substitution of objects is obvious. But, others like Silverwear and Nymphs De Mer are a response to the works of decorative art the gallery collects.

In a different way to her larger sculptures, the installation of objects in the Gallery of Craft and Design, exhibits in its own way the challenges of installing a new exhibition. Not only did the placement of the six objects in the gallery require a curator from the decorative arts team, a conservator, a technician and an exhibition curator, but also, placing the pieces brings up issues of opening the cases (some of which haven’t been opened since their objects were first placed in them ten yeas ago.) Cases are locked shut, with individual keys for every case. Removing work currently in place is a delicate process and the decision to place a work, opening the case, removing and replacing objects is a slow and careful process. I think, the challenges involved make the inclusion of her work in this gallery important and special, be sure you don’t miss it!

On Saturday 8 February we installed several works in the permanent gallery spaces. Having Joana and her team working in the galleries was exciting; visitors were able to experience the whole process from opening up the crates to the final positioning of the work. As we moved from gallery to gallery, small crowds of curious visitors formed. Many were watching as the latest work, Bond Girl, was installed.

Bond Girl, which is part of Joana Vasconcelos’ cement sculpture series, depicts a female nude standing on a plinth covered from head to toe in lace. The work is heavy, relocating it from its tall crate to the gallery floor slowly and carefully. The piece was wrapped for transport, and the obscured work drew a lot of attention from visitors to the gallery. When the work was finally revealed the gallery was packed with people interested in what was happening!

And we finally opened up the crates that housed Full Steam Ahead (Red, Green and Yellow). The works couldn’t be placed until now because we’ve had to store much of the show’s crated art works within the Temporary Exhibitions galleries at the onset of installation. Therefore, Full Steam Ahead had to wait until all the other works were removed from the crates and placed before there was room to even uncrate the 150 kg works.  Finally only three crates remained. The robotic sculptures needed to be lifted out of their crates with a gantry. They are almost 2 meters tall and over 1.5 meters wide, so they were also moved into position while suspended.

For something to appear effortless, more than likely there was an incredible amount of planning. It is therefore safe to say that the detailed planning for Time Machine began in September of last year and many plans and spreadsheets have been crossing between Portugal and Manchester by email to hone the schedule for the 10 day installation period.

A prime example of this is Lilicoptère, a gilded Bell 47 helicopter covered in bright pink ostrich feathers and thousands of Swarovski Crystals. If Marie Antoinette had survived the revolution, this would have been her escape pod.  Its interior is decorated with gold leaf detailing, leather upholstery, walnut wood, and Arraiolos rugs. It arrived in four sections, the landing skids, cabin, tail boom and rotor, each housed in its own separate crate. Once assembled it is over 12 meters long and 3 meters tall.

The tail boom was disassembled in the loading bay before it was wheeled into the art lift. The work is finished with gold leaf and varnish, which actually makes it very difficult to dismantle, as the tools mark the surface. But very slowly, and with great care, the back of the section came off.

And they fitted perfectly!

Time Machine includes many works that will be displayed amongst Manchester Art Gallery’s permanent collection galleries.  There will be pieces placed in the Craft & Design gallery, the Victorian rooms and in the Pre-Raphaelite gallery. Each piece was inspired by the subject matter within the gallery.  Cottonopolis, which relates to the tile case containg William de Morgan and Pilkington ceramics in the Pre-Raphaelite gallery, was installed today.  How did we do it? Well, I’ll tell you.

The piece arrived in four crates and three soft bags. There were three technicians from Joana’s studio, four technicians working a gantry, over seven gallery employees, and the artist. Four cameras documented the process. That is the number of people we had in the Pre-Raphaelite gallery assembling Cottonopolis.

For this work to be installed the display case that houses the Pilkington tiles had to be shifted around a meter forward. The case, which is extremely heavy, was installed in 2002 when the gallery opened and was never moved again. Not until today.  

Sections of the work came into the gallery one by one; each crate was brought down via the art lift, wheeled across the bridge and then into the gallery space. Once un-crated they were bolted together. The gantry was used to wench the top piece up and held it in place as the sections were bolted together.

The soft crates revealed lengths of cotton crochet, which were then wrapped around the tile base. There is a fantastic red and yellow heart dangling in the centre, the work is encrusted with ornamentation and is truly stunning in the gallery space.

Alexandra Christoff, Curatorial Assistant.

It is pretty busy here at Manchester Art Gallery. On Sunday the gallery was host to several cultural events for Chinese New Year and the last day of the Grayson Perry exhibition, (which was packed with visitors when I went to look around one last time.) There were 7,000 visitors on Sunday alone – a record breaking number. Now, the gallery is getting ready for the opening of Time Machine, an exhibition of works by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. Crates are being delivered, the large wooden boxes hinting at the magnitude of some of the pieces that will soon be on display! I am pretty excited by the thought of opening the crates – it will be a surprise to see how the large sculptures come apart and are packed. We cannot store the huge crates at the gallery once they are emptied so we will store them offsite. Some of the works are so large they will need to be uncrated before they can fit in the art lift which will take them up to the second floor exhibition galleries.

War Games unboxed 4

War Games unboxed 3

War Games unboxed 2

War Games unboxed 1

War Games unboxed 4

Install day 1

War Games unboxed 3

Install day 1

War Games unboxed 2

Install day 1

War Games unboxed 1

Install day 1

The works are sometimes so intricate – several have motorized engines and moving parts, and others will need to be assembled when they come out of the crates. There are a number of the artist’s assistants who are technical specialists and they are coming from Portugal, along with the artist, to set up the exhibition. Check the site daily for behind the scene shots of the installation in the coming days.

Alexandra Christoff, Curatorial Assistant.