New Shoots: Early Adventures in Exhibit Design with Three SBTD Members by Susannah Henry

I cannot be the only person who – on attending the design | stage briefing, and hearing curator Dana Pinto outline the vision for the exhibition in Coventry – began excitedly scribbling down possible options for exhibits.

Making the decisions about what to show inevitably provokes thought about how to show it. We are all familiar with the truism that it is difficult to document live performance, but at least the this has the virtue of being the outcome that is most visible within the performance-making process. Performance design, as we know, is often an invisible art. If it is done successfully then the elements of scenography may operate in such harmony that thoughts of ‘how the design came to be’ may bypass the audience entirely. Meanwhile, the materials of performance design process exist as proof of the thinking, labour and energy of the designer who originated the work.

In studios and kitchens, cupboards and storage units, performance designers save and store their work in the event it may be needed again. Perhaps like me, you are looking over these currently dormant materials and beginning to think about how they might lend themselves to public display in 2027? Perhaps it is enough of a task, to think back over the last four years and review the projects you have worked on?!

Dana Pinto affirmed that it was an ambition for design | stage that it should incorporate the origins of design ideas – early thumbnail sketches, first sketchbook pages, drawings done hurriedly on the backs of receipts on public transport – alongside the more refined materials created when an idea has gathered momentum. How do we feel about this rough-and-ready part of our process? Do we intend to share? I asked one or two friends and colleagues…

Xristina Penna, who is currently developing the Making, Unmaking, Remaking workshops and educational programme for design | stage observed that her work might be more accurately defined as scenography than ‘stage design’ which presents some interesting considerations when selecting work for exhibit – the artefacts of a scenographically-led design process might not fit the traditional mould of model, storyboard and costume designs, so how to invite people in to those processes? Xristina pointed to the joy of putting her scenographer ‘hat’ on  and “thinking about how best to communicate – or curate – the specific work” using the storytelling skills developed through the practice of scenography;

“I have always tried curating my exhibits by finding the scenography-dramaturgy style of exhibit that fits the work and design idea. For example, in the SBTD National Exhibition in Nottingham (2017) my exhibit was a hole with the hand-written note ‘look here’ and an arrow directing visitors’ gaze to the hole. Once the visitors had put their eye to the peep-hole they were able to see a video of the work I Know This, I do This All The Time (I don’t like it though). The peeping through the hole gave the visitors of the exhibition the same position that my work did when experienced during the actual performance.”

 Xristina’s example  – “scenography for the scenography!” – highlights the creativity we can bring to displaying our process and practice, and fortunately the parameters of design | stage in 2027 will allow plenty of flexibility around the format of individual exhibits, within the same common footprint. Xristina’s approach to personal curation through scenography-dramaturgy is echoed by Dick Bird, who at this early “sketchy” stage find himself “working out what story to tell, and how to best to tell it…”.

Dick pointed out the challenge of re-constructing models and other exhibitable materials from “wherever they have ended up”, recognising that for some of us this will involve approaching the companies we have worked with, “if they still exist, and is it possible to get them back, then what condition they are in, how much of a refurb do they need… what is missing?”. This foregrounds the undoubted labour in reassembling or resurrecting what may be scattered objects and materials. Such work is critical for Dick who affirms that he is “most interested in objects, behind glass or otherwise… if I can get my hands on them, I’d love to put in a costume or two.”

Returning to curator Dana Pinto’s ambition that design | stage include insights into early performance design process, how do Xristina and Dick feel about sharing the formative aspects of their practice? “I think that it helps the visitors understand better the process of a designer, which for my work is a very important aspect to share” says Xristina, “so I love showing process. My work deals with ‘inefficient aesthetics’ and ‘error’ and so I embrace this part.” Likewise, Dick feels enthusiastic about showing early process drawings, “and then how the designs develop with makers across costume, props, paint, technology and set…”.

It is such a pleasure to hear from other designers about these delicate, early transactions and their importance. I am aware that, for me, often a ‘first’ idea arrives as a sketch in a notebook meant to be about something else and is drawn with whatever medium is to hand. Often this means that to make that idea fully accessible to a collaborator I must blow it up, or work into it, but the reality is that it exists on a corner of a page containing meeting notes from my teaching job at Guildhall, alongside reminders of things to be done at home. If showing such artefacts feels slightly vulnerable-making, then we should take inspiration from The Sketchbooks of Jocelyn Herbert (RA, 2011) where costume sketches for Hamlet in 1969 are shown alongside a list of ingredients for Christmas pudding – such is the way that everyday life and design process co-mingle.

The call out for design | stage is due to go out in May, so until then we have some time for early creative thoughts about what might go into the exhibition, while beginning the process of, variously; gathering the materials from a recent production of The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum (Dick), securing permission to show production photographs from a show involving student doctors and medical ethics (me) and sketch modelling ideas for how to occupy exhibition space (Xristina). The nature of this early work is that it is often as characterful as the work itself, whether “wading through photographs” as Dick put it, or my heading with some trepidation up into an attic space  – in which there may or may not have recently been a rat – to root out my archive boxes.

Wishing others growing the green shoots of exhibition ideas for design | stage, a happy spring, and the best of luck devising exhibits and catalogue submissions reflective of all dimensions of the work we do. Look out for that call-out in May!