Superduperspective – Patrick Hughes – Sticking Out Pictures

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 07.10.06 – 17.02.07

Evaluation of comment cards

 Jennie Harvey Parker, April 2007

General themes of visitor comments

• With only a few exceptions every visitor comment was positive about the paintings in the exhibition and the experience they had at the gallery.

• Many visitors referred to the work as ‘clever’ and ‘amazing’, many expressed feelings of dizziness and sickness when looking at the paintings.

• Some suggested the exhibition would have benefited from more written guidance, better lighting of the work, a 3D exhibition catalogue and activities for children.

• Many visitors mentioned that the work inspired conversation and interaction between strangers within the gallery space.

• Nearly half of the comments made from children who reacted in awe to the perspective within the paintings.

• Many visitors wanted to know how the paintings had been made.

• The exhibition inspired visitors to want to make similar paintings themselves.

• The work challenged visitors’ perceptions of space and distance; the work appeared to ‘move’ from side to side.

Generic Learning Outcomes (GLO)-

 Sample of 210 visitor comments (out of an estimated total of 3,000):

- Attitudes and Values (AV) 101…48%

- Enjoyment, Inspiration and Creativity (EIC) 83…40%

- Knowledge and Understanding (KU) 15…7%

- Activity, Behaviour and Progression (ABP) 11…5%

- Skills (S) 0

Examples of visitor comments

Attitudes and Values (AV)

• ‘Your Hughes paintings are amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s mad you can do something like this, you (Hughes) must be a pretty cool person.’

• ‘At first when I heard we were going to an art gallery I thought it would be boring but when I got there it was brilliant.’

• ‘You should give more instructions on how to look at and appreciate the works of illusion…recommended distances. It would make these pieces much more accessible…as the interest in art is declining amongst the youth. Almost maybe people to explain the pieces that revel in symbolism.’

• ‘An absolutely marvellous exhibition! Thank you so much, these paintings are such fun and truly fascinating. They give one a new perspective on the world.’

• ‘Many people, especially families seemed unaware of the possibilities of the pictures and missed the whole point. No written guidance to help.’

• ‘I was feeling rather bored until I saw this exhibition Excellent.’

• ‘Absolutely superbly mind bending. An exhibition I will never forget’.

• ‘…looked at all these magnificent paintings and it has now changed the way I look at things…it was awesome.’

Enjoyment, Inspiration and Creativity (EIC)

• ‘My visit here was much appreciated – this is what art is really about – CREATION! Keep up the great work.’

• ‘Brilliant and very interesting. I liked the Venice one the best…Amazing.’

• ‘It was hypnotizing-wow!'

• ‘The colour’s Hughes uses brings out the true beauty of the painting.’

• ‘Breathtaking. Just a joy, a visual somersault!’

Knowledge and Understanding (KU)

• ‘Very post-modern.’

• ‘To be recommended because it is a ‘head doing’! Provokes a bizarre sense of visual uncertainty as your eyes adjust from an understanding of the images as 2D to 3D objects.’

• ‘I can see the math involved.’

• ‘I enjoyed ‘point infinity’ because when you are on the other side of the hall in turns around the corners.’

• ‘It was fantastic. I have learnt how to ‘bring out’ and ‘push back’ pictures.'

• 'I really liked the pictures but they made me feel really dizzy!...I could find my own way to look at the pictures…the paintings were not explained which meant I could interpret them any way I wanted.’

Activity, Behaviour and Progression (ABP)

• ‘Crazy. It was great. Fantastic, dizzy, silly; it makes you move a lot!’

• ‘This is my second visit, I had to show my son-brilliant!’

• ‘It’s great-it makes people laugh and move about!’

• ‘The art is amazing! Now I want to be an artist too!’

• ‘It was hard to look at, at first, but then I got the hang of it!’

• ‘I have never seen so many strangers talking together at an exhibition.’

• ‘I have come for the second time and it gets more exciting…I want to look at it over and over…’

• ‘I haven’t talked about pictures so much ever!’

• ‘I am looking forward to going back to school to make my own picture.’

These results can be compared with the response to the earlier exhibition of Hughes’ work in gallery 20 in 2002:

- Attitudes and Values (AV) 107…51%

- Enjoyment, Inspiration and Creativity (EIC) 81…39%

- Knowledge and Understanding (KU) 9…4%

- Activity, Behaviour and Progression (ABP) 13…6%

- Skills (S) 0

The high percentage of responses in the Attitudes and Value category shows that Hughes’ work challenges visitors’ expectations of an art gallery visit and stimulates them to look at art with new eyes.