Exhibition: Types, History, and Significance

This article discusses the different types of exhibitions, including art, interpretive, commercial, and digital exhibitions. It explores the history of exhibitions and their significance in the cultural and educational setting. The article also covers the essential things required for exhibitions and their role in marketing activities.

Running head: EXHIBITION
Exhibition
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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EXHIBITION
An exhibition is the display of the selected items in an organized form. It usually
occurs within a cultural as well as an educational setting. It can take place in parks, in
museums, in libraries or in museum halls. Exhibitions are not a regular process. It is opened
only for a certain period of time that happens once or twice in a year. There are some
exhibitions that are located in multiple locations and are called travelling exhibitions.
Exhibitions are used to showcase the fine piece of art that are done by the fine artists. While
studying about the exhibition, the history of the exhibition should be studied. The concept of
exhibition emerged in the nineteenth century. By the mid-nineteenth century many museums
were introduced. The modern exhibition, may be concerned with the preservation, education
and the demonstration. The exhibitions in the earlier times were designed to attract the
interest of the public and the curiosity of the common people. The exhibitions in the recent
world has been set up for the purpose of showcasing the educational talent, some exhibitions
are set up to entertain the audience and some are simply set up for the purpose of tourist
attraction (Wei, Yu-Ping and Shinyi Lin 2015).
There are different types of exhibition. One of which is the art exhibition. The art
exhibition include a wide display of the artifacts from the countless forms of human makings
like paintings, drawings, crafts, sculpture, video installations, performances, interactive art
and other similar forms of art. The art exhibitions focus on the work of a single artist or a
single group. It consists of a single theme or more than one collection of art. The art
exhibitions express a specific language through the art itself. It expresses a specific message
through the piece of art (Velarde 2017).
The other form of exhibition is the interpretive exhibition. The interpretive exhibitions
are exhibitions that are require more context in order to explain the items that are being
displayed. This kind of exhibitions are generally devoted to certain themes that are scientific
and historical. In this type of exhibitions the historical backgrounds are explained with the

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help of certain dioramas, charts, maps and interactive displays. This type of exhibitions are
more critical and they require more texts and more graphics in order to explain the form of art
(Teughels, Nelleke and Peter 2016).
The other form of exhibition is the commercial exhibitions. The commercial
exhibitions in general are called fairs or trade shows. In this type of exhibitions the industry
aims towards making profit. In these kind of exhibitions usually the industries showcase their
products and services. The industries studies the activities of the rivals and they examine the
recent trends and opportunities. These exhibitions are usually open to the public as the
intention of these exhibitions is to carry out the business transactions. Some business fairs are
however open only to the representatives of the company and the members of the press
(Tafesse et al. 2017).
The other form of exhibition is the digital exhibition. The world is heading towards
technological advancement. The scholarly communication has decreased and the technology
has made advancement in the field of technology. There are many exhibitions that are
conducted online and those are called digital exhibition. These include the digital viewing of
physical exhibits, the video tours of museums, the art galleries and other cultural venues. This
is an interesting blend of culture and technology (Popper, Frank 2015).
While discussing about exhibition, the name of Brian Griffiths comes to the mind
(Griffith 2017). The remarkable exhibition of Brian was the one where he has drawn on stage
and used the screen-writing techniques in order to develop a character who would develop the
basement space of the gallery. The character of Brian for the exhibition was a tragi-comic
character. He tried to narrate a story through his exhibition. His character was a naked,
puppet-like Caucasian male who seems to be unknown to the fact that the strings to which he
was tied, if was held up have decisively cut. The wooden body of the character showed the

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signs of wear and tear. This was indeed a remarkable creation of Brian. It was bald, blind
which showed highlighted the weakness of the character. The sculpture of the artist has been
used to convey a meaningful message to the viewers. It has a percussive title that suggests the
rattling of the wooden limbs and that appears to prohibit the most tiresome of comic routines,
the knock-knock joke is an exploration of Griffith. Griffith puts it as an option for fictional
tool. There is a remarkable question that arises in this context is that whether these sculptures
playing at being puppets or the puppets are playing at being sculptures? The other question
that arises was about the person who was pulling their string that was absent (Musser, Charles
and Carol 2015).
The not-quite-puppets of Griffith were ambiguous performers who grabbed sympathy
and laughter from the audience. They are taken to the stage in spite of their wish and despite
the implausible woodenness of their acting. They could communicate with the audience in
their own dull matter. He portrayed the character of puppet by portraying a scene where the
puppet was driving his car in a fast pace while at the other moment the puppet was dead and
he was lifeless. The puppet was simply a wooden structure who had limbs. The piece of work
of Blain, gives indication of the world of politics. It is series of riddle and it draws a quarry
which is similar to the drama of Shakespeare. The question that arise in this context is, who is
pulling the strings of the current politicians and what threats that were ghostly are there that
were lurking behind them? The puppet was displayed in the southern gallery in London
(Martin 2017).
The image was a fine piece of art and was made in an intellectual way. The puppet
was roughly painted but it had a distinctive and meaningful feature in his face. He swoons
against the wall while his head flung back. He had a spherical and bulging nose. He had a
pair of metal loops in the place of ears. This unattractive figure was placed in various
sculptural scenarios which often seemed ridiculous. The figure had no security of existence.

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The puppet could fall nay moment and in any time on the ground. His created this and he laid
this out in the exhibition in order to establish the fact that the humans try to use objects in
order to give meaning to their worlds. This can be applicable in all the situations like the
situation where the humans try to sublimate the fears, where he tries to organize the
affections and the anxieties or shape the fantasies (Kukka et al. 2017).
There are certain things that are essential in exhibitions. The first and foremost thing
that is required is the name and address of the venue of the exhibition where it is supposed to
be held. The venue has a major role to play in this. All the exhibitions cannot be held in one
particular venue. For example, the art exhibitions are held in some galleries or in some kind
of art venues. The commercial exhibitions on the other hand are held in some banquets or in
some kind of big auditoriums. The other needs are the equipment that are required in an
exhibition like the portable display stand equipment, the power chargers, batteries, extension
leads , the sellotape, the drawing pins, the scissors or knives and any other props that are
required. The promotional activity of the exhibition should be strong enough. It should be
done through some amount of business cards, flyers, the passes for the exhibition should be
distributed among the common public. The brochures and the leaflets should be distributed
equally (Ballard, James and William 2015).
Exhibitions are an important part of the marketing activities. The exhibitions are the
best forum to express the talents of a person. It is the best stage where an artist or a creator
can showcase his talent and reach out to the outside world. In the contemporary world,
technology has brought about remarkable change and they have brought about a new form of
communication. In spite of that the need of personal interaction has not decreased. The
personal meetings have a separate significant meaning. This includes many benefits as well
as many risks. The biggest benefit is that it enhances the art and culture in a society. Being
involved in any kind of trade show can provide an individual with many opportunities.

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Leaving the benefits aside the risks of the same cannot be overlooked. In many cases it has
been seen that the exhibitions witnesses many negative criticisms which is harmful for the
artists. Apart from this the trade shows sometimes can be costly and it might to lead to
negative competition. Leaving aside all these exhibitions are altogether a new idea and new
exploration and therefore can be new experience for an individual (Balietti, Robert and Dirk
2016).

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References
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Griffith, Brian. 2017. "No No To Knock-Knocks". http://Brian-Griffiths-No-No-to-Knock
%20(1).pdf.
Kukka, Hannu, Johanna Ylipulli, Jorge Goncalves, Timo Ojala, Matias Kukka, and Mirja
Syrjälä. "Creator-centric study of digital art exhibitions on interactive public displays."
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Martin, Colin. "Unrestful art." The Lancet Neurology 16, no. 3 (2017): 187.
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forgotten era of traveling exhibition, 1880-1920. Princeton University Press, 2015.
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Roosevelt, Theodore. An art exhibition. Arsalan Ahmed, 2015.
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Velarde, Giles. Designing exhibitions: museums, heritage, trade and world fairs. Routledge,
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