After the success of their 2012 exhibition Lost is Found, a team of ex Creative Stars were asked to curate their second show at Cornerhouse. Together, Neetu Roy, Liz Gibson and Alex Leigh wrote a brief inviting artists to realise a new commission. From a pool of 600 applications they selected the works and developed the exhibition Four. Liz Gibson shares her experience as one of the young curators.
We’ve been working on the young curators project for a couple of months now, but it feels like much longer. We’ve achieved so much in such a short space of time. We’ve selected the four works to be commissioned, we’ve discussed links and themes connecting the work, and we’ve chosen a name for the exhibition: Four.
We’ve created an identity for the show, focusing on how it will look and feel, the atmosphere we want to create inside the gallery, and the effect we want the show to have on our audience. I feel like we’ve come a long way since the early days of writing the brief. Things move fast in the world of curation!
It’s been great to have had the chance to get to know Neetu and Alex better – we knew each other and were friends from Creative Stars but with the Young Curators project, there being just the three of us, we are really learning more about each other and finding out how best to work as a team to achieve all of our goals.
For example, of the four pieces we have selected for the exhibition, there is one that each of us felt particularly strongly about, and a fourth piece that we all felt fitted in well with the others to create a show of similarities, but also contrasts. The final selection includes work by Tristram Aver, Nicola Ellis, Kate Sully and Liz West.
I’ve really enjoyed working with the staff at Cornerhouse. They see us as adults and curators, not as kids, which I think is very important. It’s also been great seeing what goes on behind the scenes – how everyone works together to create successful exhibitions, and the amount of work that goes into making something appear effortless.
I am so glad I decided to take part in this project; I feel I have learnt a great deal already and it is an amazing feeling organising an exhibition at one of my favourite galleries. Bring on Four!
Four runs in Gallery 1 from Sat 26 Jan – Sun 24 Feb 2013. To hear more from Liz visit her blog Liz Gibson, Waxing Lyrical.