WEEK 4: 'Frank the dog' exhibition inspiration

"Frank The Dog" exhibitions (by Jenny Gillam):

How did Jenny get the inspiration for her work?

It stemmed mostly from a silent video of two black Scottish terriers going for a casual walk.

She aimed to make work a series to pull it apart even more. It revolves around learning how humans relate to animals and how they react to us – what it tells us about ourselves in how they react to the world.

First piece: ‘Frank: The Engine Room’:

Still cameras set up – she was out of sight just watching how Frank would react in the gallery space. She’d hope people would get a different feeling about the space – that something had been there before them.

Second piece: ‘Frank: RMIT Gallery superimposed’: (what we're inspired by)

To keep the series going; she had to be re-think up an idea for a space in Melbourne. So they didn’t travel there. She asked them to take a photo of the gallery space and superimpose him through green screen into the space so it made it look like he was exploring the space. Movements were different: all over the place (as soon as the walls were taken away he was darting all over the place). You don’t have as much depth in the studio so you’d never see Frank by the far wall by the ‘door’.

Third piece: ‘Frank: Blue Oyster’:

Frank was flown over to Dunedin and explored a gallery with three cameras set up in three rooms.

Technical requirements: 

Prefers high end stuff. (better to have cables hidden)

Put the work upside down so Frank was running upside down (seeing the other opportunities for the work); she set the conditions but Frank was making the work – hang the tablet upside down – and plug it into the roof. The way the Frank exhibitions were displayed was with two screens/tablets side by side (with two perspectives) surrounded by white space.