One of the challenges of curating a travelling exhibition of textile works is to ensure that it can be displayed securely and attractively in a variety of venues with a minimum of fuss. Accordingly, I specify that all textile worksgoing on tour must have a combined hanging sleeve and velcro strip casing attached to the back.
The sleeves accommodate hanging rod systems used in many gallery and quilt show venues. The velcro strips adhere to the carpet walls used at some venues. (For small works, they would also be suitable for venues that use velcro on bare walls.) The textile works sit nice and flat. Takedown is speedy too.
- an all-in-one integrated sleeve and velcro casing; and
- detachable, velcro casing attached to a regular hanging sleeve.
The protective casing covers the hook velcro so it doesn’t get caught on other textile works during packing and storage. When you open up the protective casing, use just enough of the loop velcro on the lower half to ensure that the casing closes firmly and securely but not so much as to make it difficult to open and close the velcro. (Thanks to Sue Dennis for this tip.)
So far on tour, the Beneath the Southern Sky exhibition has been displayed to dramatic effect on black carpet walls. This is an overview from the Craft & Sewing Show in Auckland:
Beneath the Southern Sky has its first gallery fixture at The Q Exhibition Space, Queanbeyan: 4-18 December 2012 with opening night function from 5.30-7.30pm, Tuesday 4 December. All welcome! (Please RSVP to me if you can come along to the opening.) This will be the first time that the hanging sleeves have been used. The Laundry King helped me by making these hanging rods to fit the exhibition:
*The compliance rate was 27 out of 30! Two works had incorrectly positioned velcro and one arrived without a sleeve.
