The Curation Team’s objective on Mon 7 November was to review the pieces they had chosen for the exhibition whilst discussing and thinking about common themes and bridges between the works. By now, such subtle similarities were well into development, and it was clear that the team’s chosen art was the result of careful selection, with an emphasis on the redundant being reborn once again, one person’s disregarded items being another’s treasure, as well as issues of identity.
The team started out not only revising their strategy and key ideas, but also looking at other works of the chosen artists to see if they had made any similar pieces in terms of the themes and styles involved. Other artists had been noted down as definite choices, largely due to their style, both in-keeping with the tone of our exhibition as well as having created amazing pieces of art.
That said, the feelings I gathered from the works chosen so far for the exhibition give atmospheric elements, more worthy of the art of progression and using one’s imagination than being complete or stand alone. That’s not to say they aren’t impressive, with fascinating concepts. Quite the opposite in fact, with inspirations ranging from an insane woman in a Victorian lunatic asylum to a burnt out moped; yet they all seem to slot together and appear stronger as a collective whole.
You could therefore argue that the exhibition is progressive, and requires a certain amount of creativity and imagination to breach the border of actuality and this in turn makes you think about what is presented before you. Such works can be just as powerful and weigh more heavily on the mind for longer periods afterwards, than several, perhaps disjointed yet still amazing singular pieces.
Although I was not part of the Curation Team, I was permitted to voice my opinions on the works, and looked for patterns between them, not only in keeping with certain themes, but also those which stand in opposition to other pieces within the show. For example, one piece depicted a woman in a red dress going insane against a pale blue background. This stood in contrast with the naked, free spirit of the woman in another piece by a different artist, this time in black and white. Further connections were made by the curation team which all made for a great final selection of work.
Overall, the meeting proved quite eventful, even including a phone call to one of the artists with questions regarding the scale of the projection of her piece. We left the meeting with a clearer sense of the issues involved. The colour of the walls has yet to be decided upon, with any preferences relayed to the communications team.
Written by Creative Star, Paddy Johnson (November 2011)