'How to Curate' Workshop with Dafna

With the initial questions of what comes to mind when you hear the word curation / what does it mean to curate something, I thought of the idea of sorting and organising work into groups with common themes within them. I also thought that there is some importance on communicating these themes through the order in which they are displayed as a way of giving them a narrative or a map for the viewer to follow. In terms of experiences I've had curating, I thought of last year and curating an Instagram exhibition for the A Level photography end of year display. One of my peers and I went through photographs and artworks made by each person in our year group and found themes within the range of work. We also considered colour coordination and how the images would look placed next to each other in rows of three on a screen.

In the presentation Dafna spoke about the different aspects that impact curation. One of these was the space (whether physical or virtual) in which work is shown and how this impacts the viewers experience and reaction. I think different types of gallery spaces determine the audience it attracts (as well as what the exhibition is about) but it was mentioned that White Cube spaces can appear to be pretentious and maybe discourage people who don't know much about art to visit. I think accessibility is really important when it comes to art because everyone should have the opportunity to experience art whether they have an artistic background or not. It should also be affordable and inviting to everyone. In contrast to this type of exhibition space, work can be shown outside in a public space. This changes who the average viewer is because anyone could be passing by. However experiencing art in public is very different to experiencing it in a gallery space, so it is still hugely important that these are accessible and inviting to all.

After the presentation, the same question was asked - what does it mean to curate something? I thought differently and more about the space in which work is shown, whether that's a physical or virtual space. The space really impacts the viewer's experience and changes the way the work is viewed. The space doesn't need to be 'grand' to be considered an exhibition - for example, work show in public or in the artists house. The element of time also really interested me, so if work is shown for 2 minutes versus 2 months, this affects who sees the work and also maybe makes the viewing time more precious if it's shorter? There was also the idea that the viewer can also be the curator, and rearrange / swap the artwork. This creates a constant rotation of works (such as an archive) and again means each viewer won't see exactly the same thing. This interactive curation during exhibition time may make the experience more memorable and perhaps enjoyable when the viewer doesn't just observe but an actively participates.

After the presentation, we curated photographic works from Photoworks' 'Festival in a Box'. In groups we organised the images and decided how to display them.

Many of the print outs were double-sided so we used an existing wire to hang a series of images by 2 photographers so that they could be seen from both sides. This created an interesting double exposure look to one side, as you could see the photo from behind too.

Around the studio we used found materials that could add to our mini exhibition in some way. Dafna spoke of making a conscious decision about whether we removed any tape from previous work off the walls or if we didn't mind the way that looked. We also placed the image above in front of the projector which had the blue stand-by screen on. We thought this went well with the colours of the image and also made it look almost as if it was a positive slide being projected. I think this exercise made me realise the importance of how things are used so that they enhance the work and don't detract from it.

Research & Reflections

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