In February, MA Fine Art were invited to show work in a cross-pathway pop-up exhibition in Studio 27, Millbank Tower. On the day, we delivered our work and shared with the group some basic details about it, including any preferences we had for how it might be displayed. We were sent away as a team comprised of UAL Fine Art staff and Studio 27 technicians then curated the artworks in the exhibition space.

The space was once a floor of offices, with glass-partitioned rooms at the edges and a wall of tall windows overlooking the London skyline. The curators placed in my piece, Lipsum – shin-height stuffed cube made of bright turquoise beach towel – staggered between a series of four figurative paintings. In crit weeks later, someone pointed out that my work was acting as a kind of meeting point; the way it was positioned in our studio made the group instinctively form a circle around it. This made me think back to the way in which the curators had placed it in Studio 27, sitting in a space where the subjects of the surrounding images were encircling it.

During the day, as Lipsum sat on the faded corporate carpet (I had requested floor display), it was hit with sharp blocks of sunlight that came through the nearby windows. The geometry of the work, the diagonal block pattern of the carpet underneath and the hard edges of the sunlight gave it the work the clean-cut feel of a minimalist sculpture. As the sun went down, the office strip lighting made the work seem softer, sagging even. The vibrant turquoise had sallowed in the yellow tone of the light.

Having my work curated in this way allowed me to see it with fresh eyes. I don’t know if I would have made significantly different curatorial decisions, but I reflected on the effects of the placement much more deeply when analysing what the curators had done. I tend to attribute the way I display my work to a combination of instinct and practicality. The session at Studio 27 was a timely reminder to interrogate my future exhibition of work with the same rigor. If someone else, and not me, was installing my work in this way, how would I interpret their choices? What would I see?