The exhibition at 18 Millbank was the first to be offsite this year. Fortunately, having done an off-site show which was completely student-led during my BA, the curation process did not feel challenging. We left our works and the tutors largely curated the space during a short break. Although I had the opportunity to try placing my work in another area of the room, I felt the painting suited its placement alongside other root and tree-based works. I felt my painting and the other works spoke to each other in form and even colour - there were long roots and greens. This exhibition had the works of MA students across all disciplines - painting, sculpture... I found this refreshing and exciting; I recognised two students' sculptural works which I had particularly liked during our Pop-up show before the Christmas break. It was interesting and enjoyable to speak to these students; hearing their ideas and also getting along as people. I felt my work needed a plain-walled 'normal' set-up in the space. However, I feel the challenge of this exhibition was figuring out how best to show work in a space which was not created for exhibiting - originally an office floor, the lighting was particularly uneven on my painting and it could not be corrected by a bright light being temporarily held up by a tutor to attempt an evenly-lit photograph. I decided not to place my work next to a 3-windowed door as it was distracting, yet I left some breathing space between the neighbouring student's work to avoid overcrowding. Although the tutors encouraged me to place the work directly above the ridge of a panel in order to get more natural light I was adamant not to do this as the panel was ugly and drew the eye awkwardly upwards in a part of the painting which had lines going in many different directions; my peer agreed with me that this simply did not work. As the green of the painting is so vibrant and the black creates a void, being in a darker area of the room actually brought forward the glow-in-the-dark quality I was trying to imitate from Lynda Benglis' 'Phantom'. The painting was placed between two panel ridges opposite a doorway as I liked how when exiting the neighbouring room, the painting is directly opposite. I found it interesting seeing how my peers experimented with ways of exhibiting their work which I am familiar with. A new skill I learnt during the exhibition was how to make and hang a wood panel from a metal wire. Before the exhibition opened to our audience we discussed what we thought the themes were which brought our works together since we had been put into the group by tutors as they felt we shared particular themes. My group believed we shared themes of Nature, mystery and the human onlooker. I found it interesting how a student who had moved group for practical reasons had managed to integrate their political, human work on an armchair with similar colours to the painting; the tutors believed it brought the theme of the Human and human onlooker in Nature. 

I feel the exhibition made me question the balance of being experimental when exhibiting a work; I came to the conclusion that there is only a need to be experimental in the way a work is exhibited if it compliments the work and brings forward a certain quality which is already present in the work. Experimentation for the sake of being interesting is cheap, performative and often has the opposite effect. I feel a strong work usually speaks for itself without need for it to perform in a space, screaming for the eyes of the viewer. However, perhaps the liberation which comes from being experimental in exhibiting for the sake of it is also tied with a playfulness often thought of being integral to the enjoyment of art and creativity.