#co-curation

[tarainthemuseum]

This made me think

the text panel made me see prosthetics and the approach to prosthetics differently. I felt my mind expand a little more here, approaching something Ive not had much experience in and thus have a mainstream thought on and pushing the bounds. I wonder how this text panel would translate / come across if it was written in the standard closed caption style without attribution nor active language?

[tarainthemuseum]

The Wellcome collection had a new numbering system running alongside the usual one. At strategic locations artists, curators, academics, arts workers and more had been invited to add a contemporary and personal commentary to the artifacts. Here are some powerful examples around decolonisation. I am also pleased - and Dan was interested too - in the display of 'back of house' work. Seeing the classification and talking about the museum as a workplace with processes and as flawed is brilliant.

The one below was particularly hard hitting for me. It is powerful, I have put the images they refer to under the 'keep reading' so as not to perpetuate the sharing of others cultures for quick consumption, or to 'pretty' my feed. The changing of the titles of the pieces too was particularly brilliant. Recently I attended a session on representing the reality as part of the museum and heritage summer series and Sir Geoff Palmer was talking about how there are no sensitive topics, only the truth. The retitling of 'British tribe member tresspassing' reminds me of that discussion.

[tarainthemuseum]

This participatory installation is featured on a wall at the Wellcome Collection. This is my created design from 18/7/21 at the website below. The patterns are created from answering a few questions on scale ratings which come together to produce a design which conveys data. I love this. Myself and Dan both did it, and we spent a while searching for our favourite (the ones which resonated with us) on the wall. I saw a number of other people sitting and interacting with it too.

[lizziedonegan]

My friend Mark received my paper art works, displayed them in his flat in Glasgow and sent me some brilliant photographs to document this. I phoned Mark for feedback and we had a good discussion about the process and its’ outcomes. Mark felt happy with the instructions I sent, he felt the instructions were part of the artwork, part of the idea and he liked having direction and didn’t find this limiting at all, though he found room to play with them. I said I knew before sending that there seemed to rather a lot of instructions, a lot of writing to take in and bullet points or no instructions at all might be preferable for the receiver/ co-curator - discussed how, when creating something, often I find myself in a position of starting ‘nowhere’ - so part of my role, my process, is to create a starting point, to lay the lines/ the boundaries, somewhere - anywhere - just to make a start on something. 

Mark tried hanging the longer magazine piece from a ‘washing line’ (not a washing line) strung across his lounge - see picture above. I said I love that he has found a way to hang it from the middle of the room- this, for me, seems to make more of the work - seems to transform the lounge to gallery, or something in between - a space to live in but also to look at (non-functional) things. He displayed it with a piece of his own work hung behind, on another line. Mark is also studying, he is learning to make clothes, and the lines are a place to hang things while he is thinking (or not thinking) about them. The piece hanging here is a series of sample squares, individually not functional, sewn together, just to see what they look like or just for something to do. Talked about how the concern with ‘knowing’, or the assumption of knowing, what  something will look like once it is finished can act as a barrier to just getting on and doing it - and that, actually, when a project is started ‘anyway,’ ie in spite of the ‘knowing,’ it often leads to unexpected gains - they way it feels to do it, the ideas that are generated in the process of doing, the tacit knowledge we get when we just do it anyway.

The piece was pegged from the end of a hanger, which in turn was pegged to a  line above - I like how this shows it’s relative weightlessness, since the balance of the hanger is unaffected.

Mark also tried hanging the long paper piece from a feature in the corner of his lounge, where he has coiled the cable from a lamp around a piece of wood. The lamp hangs down from the end of it. The italic curls of the paper piece seem to progress naturally from the cable.

Mark spoke about his wish to display the artworks in a way that wasn’t too contrived. He wanted to put the artworks in places in his home which he looks at anyway. He described sitting in his lounge and looking at the corner where the lamp hangs; looking at things he has hung on the lines across the ceiling; looking out the window and looking at the artworks he already has on the wall. Looking and thinking.

I really love how Mark has overlapped one of his artworks with one of mine (above). They really complement each other- similar lines/ shapes and similarly (more or less) monochromatic. The shapes on the wallpaper fit too- seems an appropriate background surface for this exhibit. My instruction in the letter had been to remove an existing picture nailed to the wall and replace it with this squiggle paper-work. Mark said he considered displaying it with / instead of a hammer he has hung on the wall (displayed as a decorative item), however this would have involved moving his record player...etc...and in line with his idea (or curatorial decision/ policy) he wanted to display everything in a way that seemed natural and not contrived, ie without making adjustments; without changing things too much. He settled instead on overlapping the piece with his photocopy artwork.

Mark initially pegged the cut out newspaper piece to the curtain rail, before realising it had a folded ‘lip’ at one end (folded by me). My suggestion in the letter was to hang it from a shelf using the angled lip, however Mark said the shelves he has are for function, just pure storage, with nothing (he feels) worthy of display behind/ with the newspaper piece. While thinking about where to place it, Mark hung it temporarily from his desk:

I think it looks absolutely marvellous in this location! Maybe it is because I know Mark, I know he is working on cutting out patterns and sewing garments, that the newspaper piece here looks like some kind of functional thing- maybe because the paper is not dissimilar in form (at least in appearance here) to some kind of wearable fabric.

Also discussed the notion of these artworks as possibly causing an obstruction. Mark said he has things around his flat, stuff he owns already, which causes an obstruction- but he leaves it where it is because he likes looking at it, or it isn’t so inconvenient as to lead him to take action and move it.

“I have lots of things that could get in the way. But I like it so I’ll deal with the consequences.”

Talked about: is it OK to ask someone to put my work in their home, their private, domestic space?

Mark said the work is giving ‘no position, no political or cultural opinion- it is about form or shape,’ and therefore not an affront.

NB I am only asking people to display stuff and live with it for  24 hours. And it’s ephemeral- it doesn’t require structural change to a room or even new holes in the wall in order to be exhibited within it. It’s not big or heavy. It’s made of paper.

Mark moved the newspaper cut out back to the window, this time using the folded lip to hang it from the ledge midway down (above). I said I hadn’t tried hanging it in front of a window. I hadn’t actually anticipated he might do this. But it looks brilliant! Very elegant. In some of the images he sent (below), the frame itself seems to move into the background and the areas of light through the window become the main event, the thing to pay attention to, which is nicely aligned with the idea of the frame I have had on my mind with this piece all along.

I discussed my idea (instigated by this current project) of creating artworks with the intent of replacing things around the house, eg I concertinaed 2/3 of a piece of newspaper, leaving the top 1/3 unfolded and I thought about how this could hang in a window instead of a blind. Or how I might make something that sits in place of a lampshade. Mark said this sounds good as long as what I make isn’t actually a lampshade. He feels the paper work I am making:

“..needs to teeter on the edge, you’re not quite sure where it sits and yet it keeps your attention.”

....meaning it mustn’t be functional- but it could have a function - or it looks like it could - or it doesn’t look it could but it’s next to or instead of something that does. Mark referred to the long paper piece as creating a string of ‘S’ shapes and ending in a smaller shape, like a pair of lips, since the last shapes doesn’t have anything weighing it down. I said the last shape, it’s difference, makes it a kind of tick or check mark - and later I reflect this is like an end to the sentence. This has got me thinking, maybe there is something further to do here incorporating type? Or maybe it’s too literal....something to try, anyway.

Talked about the possibility of displaying this long artwork between two surfaces, which are spaced at a shorter distance than the length of the artwork, so the artwork stretches out from where it is hung and then collects, unfolded, on the lower surface. Mark was clear he wouldn’t display this piece against the wall or other flat, vertical surface as this would stop the viewer from seeing or appreciating it’s angles and folds, it’s aptitude to hang at an angle- this angle will depend on which way it is hung.

It’s a piece of paper with potential, I think.