Today I’m going to present something a little different, something more authentic. I reflected on the panel comments from my first Milestone in April, who suggested I explore more diagrammatic devices, but not the linear way, and not on PowerPoint. The following presentation and drawing is me ‘out of my comfort zone’ because I do not draw. However, because this is a Work In Progress. I see it as an opportunity to experiment with my research processes, to see if they will yield new information to take me to the next stage. So I drew a 2m x 1m mind map that explores and visualises my practice. It’s an action drawing and it is a sacrificial drawing so it is not precious. It illustrates the processes of 3 curatorial projects up to the point of the finished work without showing the finished work or the encounter with the public.
There are no professionally photographed artworks here but rather snaps from my phone or screen grabs, of rough and raw drafts, sketch’s, of people making, people engaging, depictions of thought processes being assembled and disassembled, ideas been thrown off course, rescued, refined and finally released with excitement and trepidation. It is not scientific. It is a combination of memory, experience, tangible facts, intangible consequence, decisions, manifested into a complex matrix. It is a drawing of conversations with consequences, some you dread and some are inspirational and can change your life, but all build your knowledge as you keep going.
I’ll share the method of how I read the map, so you can follow.

My practice is based on conversation, aided by instinct and opportunity and insight of the bigger picture. I suppose this is strategic thinking and ability to see around corners. My role as curator is to give form to conversations or in other words Materialising Discourse. The meaning of discourse is an interchange of ideas between me and architect or artist, especially the spoken word, but also includes written correspondence. To materialise is to take shape, to come to being, to function as a work via its materiality. As well as visuals we have a timeline, and a colour code which shows:

The curators intent ORANGE. The artist’s intent BLUE. The common ground YELLOW.

I will show you that in some cases there is dominance of one over the other, in some there is equivalence. It all depends on the context, scale, timescale, 3rd parties. The relationship and how it is conducted is charged, and can be a power struggle. One is curator driven, the artists being the raw material for my theme. One is collaborative and the third is reciprocal. One thing is for sure, it’s not a two person discourse there is a whole creative ecology at play.

It is not only the artist who creates the object in its materiality, but rather the entire set of agents engaged in the field. Funders, stakeholders, venues, staff, fabricators: all participants in the production. This ecology places curating within a holistic view and the map reveals interdependencies of the curator and artist, of 3rd parties and eventually of the artwork and the public. My job is to ensure there is a balance.

Let’s Start with I see Earth

‘This was the exhibition I’ve always wanted to do’ she says.

‘I guess I am asking for permission to be whatever I want to be’ he says.

I approached Tom, because I felt there was a dearth of exhibitions exploring mid career architects, or any architects in Dublin. Especially his practice, because whether it is a building, a book or a conversation with Tom, he is always trying to communicate and with a span of knowledge for material culture and history, connections and linkages that are as layered as archaeology. He is a culturally significant architect who hasn’t built much. An important aspect of the Tom-Nathalie relationship, was to create a situation in which the artist can focus on creating the best possible artwork and to guarantee that Tom and his discourse, finds its best, optimum way of speaking.
The journey was not straight-forward. In this model. Both curator and artist can do something the other can’t. I wanted to accommodate both artists needs and audience demands, so the process had reciprocity and dialogue built into its whole structure. Have BOUNDARIES been maintained between artistic process and my curatorial discourse? Often a project requires a leap of faith from both parties, so I question how have I built trust?

The Lives of Spaces

The Lives of spaces/local/global/national representation and identity driven. The exhibition articulated a curatorial VOICE through selection of work, subjective interests, are strong here, then the installation operated an evocation of those interests. I and my co curator (Hugh Campbell) were active in the production, we were in the thick of it, directing the exhibitors 100%. We as curators manipulated the environment, the lighting, labels, placement of works, as raw material.

The Everyday Experience/local/global

Curatorial strategy was to invoke a range of issues and emotions, representations and debates, in order to provoke continuing curiosity and speculation- fuel further research into everyday life. The exhibition articulates a curatorial /voice/ through selection of work, subjective interests then the installation operates an evocation.

I hope it generated a new discursive space around artistic practice by bringing a greater mix of people into an exhibition. The exhibition acted as a principal agent in debate and criticism on architecture and design, politics and society.

My curatorial considerations exposed themes emerging simultaneously as works are juxtaposed with one another. The  exhibition space facilitated or constrained what can be achieved as both conceptual and aesthetic considerations are taken into account in the hanging, weights, volume and the movement of people.

As curator I manipulated of the environment, the lighting, labels and placement of works. As the producer of the ‘raw materials’ the artists were the delivers of the curator’s conceptual premise.

BECOMING PUBLIC/NEXT STAGE

Discourse 2

The map stops at a charged moment when the discourse continues, but takes on another process as the artwork is engaged in the public realm.
It revealed that curating as a medium through which the communication between art and the audience and that the Architecture Exhibition is a producer of meaning and this is its purpose.

In this context Discourse is a cycle, for example form follows discourse and discourse follows form.

Have I decided between the public good and my responsibility toward the artist(s)? I will analyse the conception of the me as a decoder, the translator who brings meaning to artworks. How have I communicated with all contingent and 3rd parties that go into materialising an exhibition?

Curating is a social act.

FURTHER INSIGHTS

Discourse 3: Continues to communicate.

How exhibitions shape architectural discourse and practice. If the exhibition includes rhetoric, expressions of persuasion, subjective political tools, articulations and declarations. What is it saying?