Hanging Fourteen Works in One Room With One Door
You are one of eight students hanging the end-of-year show in a college gallery: a single room 9.4 m long, 4.1 m wide and 2.6 m high, with one door at a short end, a radiator along one long wall and a track of six spotlights at 3.1 m. Between you there are 14 works: eleven paintings and drawings between 40 × 50 cm and 90 × 70 cm, one canvas 180 × 120 cm, one unframed charcoal drawing on thin paper, and one three-minute video needing a screen and headphones. Fixings are not permitted above 2.2 m or within 60 cm of the radiator. The room is invigilated by students sitting on a folding chair by the door, who must be able to see the whole space. The private view is in three days. One student's work is noticeably weaker than the rest and she is anxious about where it will go.
1. Propose a hang. Where do the large canvas and the video go, and why?
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Large canvas. It cannot go on a short end wall (4.1 m wide, and it would dominate the doorway sightline at 180 cm wide). Put it on the long wall opposite the door, roughly centred on the room's length, with its centre at about 150 cm and its top well under the 2.2 m fixing limit. Reasons: it is the first thing seen on entering, it has breathing space either side, and it anchors the show without blocking circulation. Fix into two studs and use mirror plates - 180 × 120 cm is heavy enough to need two fixings.
Video. A dark corner away from the door, at the far short end if possible, with the screen at about 140 cm to the centre and headphones so the audio does not bleed across the paintings. Daylight from the door will wash out a screen placed near it; the far corner also stops visitors clustering in the entrance.
Charcoal on thin paper. Away from the radiator, the door draught and any spot directly raking the surface. Spotlights at roughly 30° off the wall plane reduce glare on glazed works and stop raking light emphasising the cockling of thin paper.
Labels at 140 cm, consistent side, so the invigilator can read the room from the chair by the door.
2. How do you handle the weaker work without either hiding it or letting it drag the show down?
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Hiding it is not neutral - it tells the student and the assessor that you made a judgement about her, not her work, and she will read the corner placement immediately. But a bad position is a real cost to her marks, because work is assessed in the conditions it is shown in.
Practical route:
- Give it a fair wall, not a prize wall. A clean stretch of the long wall where it is seen on its own terms, with correct eye level and proper lighting, is generous without pretending it is the centrepiece.
- Do not isolate it as a 'weak corner'. Isolated work reads as excluded. Hang it in a short sequence with one or two works of similar scale so it is viewed in company.
- Avoid the comparison trap. Do not pair it directly with the strongest piece at the same size - that is a contrast nobody benefits from.
- Talk to her first. Ask what she wants from the hang; she may have a view on sequence. Offer the position as a decision, not a verdict.
The group's job is to give every work a fair viewing condition. That is a curatorial standard, not a kindness.
3. What practical checks do you run in the 24 hours before the private view?
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Work through a physical checklist, not a memory one:
- Fixings: every work level (spirit level, not eye), all fixings load-bearing, nothing above 2.2 m, nothing within 60 cm of the radiator, no cable trailing across a walking route.
- Sightlines: sit in the invigilator's chair and confirm every work is visible; walk the entrance sightline; check nothing is hidden behind the open door.
- Light: all six spots aimed and focused with the room lights as they will be during the show; check for glare on glass and hot spots on the charcoal.
- Video: full three-minute loop tested, headphones working, audio level checked, spare batteries/cables, screen brightness set for the room.
- Labels: names spelled correctly, titles and media accurate, consistent height and side, no label under the wrong work. This is the error most often spotted by visitors.
- Environment: radiator off or shielded, no damp wall behind the works, nothing hung over a damp patch.
- Paperwork: an inventory list with photographs of the final hang, so the show can be re-hung identically if a work is sold or damaged.