opportunities & boundaries: for the last few weeks i have been putting my work out there and finding opportunities to show my work to an audience. i am beginning to sense where i am most comfortable in showing my work and it seems to correlate with available ‘open call’ opportunities (group exhibitions, exchanges) for my 2d format print works in galleries. these galleries have been national and international, big and small – the courthouse gallery ennistymon, galway arts centre, marquee gallery new london conneticut (for March). these open calls have also been open themed and so they have allowed me to continue my preoccupations with landscape, body, gender, image etc.
opportunities and other boundaries: i feel these opportunities have been very beneficial to my making process in helping me focus and complete work to a given deadline, but mainly because they have given me an opportunity to reach an audience and share (and sell) my work – a new audience in each venue and an online audience where the galleries have promoted the work. in the main, i have been able to make work i want to with some adherence to scale or size. however, i am also becoming increasingly aware that the opportunities are mainly for my 2d print work and for group shows. for the last few weeks i have been trying to push these boundaries, seeking a solo show and also seeking ways to share and exhibit my video works. i emailed a local pub asking for the opportunity for a solo show of my print works, which they said they would get back to me, though i think i might need to contact them again. i am now in the processes of looking for opportunities for my video works. so far, opportunities for my video work has been much more limited – open calls have been mainly themed or have had briefs which do not suit the work i am making relating to landscape, body, gender etc., although i have specified these key words in my searches.
adapting my boundaries: so like a light bulb moment, i decided that my boundaries are self-inflicted and might be limiting my scope, not just in terms of reaching an audience but also in what and how i am making. having trawled through many open calls for video works, i have decided to respond to or maybe introduce some new aspects to my work and way of working to suit their brief, yet all the time keeping landscape, body and gender in soft focus. i am excited about what this might mean to the content of my work and the direction it might take me. it may also be helpful in terms of finding out what i can and cannot compromise on. using netEX, callfor and flamin as sources, i have found 2 possible opportunities for my video work, which i will post about as the work emerges.
creating opportunities that don’t exist yet: although less convenient, it seems possible to find new audiences and opportunities for my work and to push my boundaries in this manner. i am also becoming aware that this method is reactive and that there might be ways to create opportunities myself that are not there yet, needing me to create a space and audience for my work or for work that will emerge. this feels like a real unknown but something i will attempt on some scale in the coming weeks also.
elaine crowe 
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