Relationship between the curator and the Artist
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, “curator” is defined as one who has the care and superintendence of something; especially : one in charge of a museum, zoo, or other place of exhibit. Within the museum or gallery space, a curator works with already existing pieces. Recently, curators have shifted their role into becoming more involved in working with the artist from the start, aiding in the growth of their work as well as giving them briefs in which to create their work within.
So what is the relationship between curator and artist? Is there a space for a new type of curator to exist? Possibly one that collaborates with the artist from the start, and throughout the process of the creating rather than starting from the end of their production. Rather than being “invisible”, which has been one of the curators role in the past, could the curator and artist become more unified? If curators posses the power to provoke specific perspectives, what else could emerge when they have a bigger role in creating the Art? And where do designers fit into this role within curation and artist? What is the new space for “Curator as Designer” or “Designer as Curator”? In order to explore this alternative relationship, a list was compiled in order to index what the different types of relationship a curator has with an artist.
1. Curator as a mediator for the Artist’s and contemporary events
2. Curator as a designer for a system which the artist can apply to their creation.
3. Curator as a facilitator for aiding in the Artists creation to exist in different spaces.
4. Curator as a facilitator for the Artists wants to the greatest extent possible
5. Curator as a diplomat for environment/space in which the Artist is creating within.
6. Curator and Artist as one.
7. Curator as a facilitator for collaboration amongst Artists
8. Curator as an advocate for the Artists concepts
9. Curator as a documentarian/producer for the Artists dialogue and process
10. Curator to challenge the Artists in environment they are creating within.
Fred Wilson, an artist turned curator mentions “I am seeing museum space as a constructed kind of design space, as an installation environment. Very much like an artist you’re manipulating objects, light, color, spatial relationships. So I thought perhaps I could manipulate the space, make it kind of a trompe l’oeil of a museum space. Critiquing, as well, the notion of museum.”, which has provoked a thought of what other areas can be explored when the Curator of the museum/show/gallery is an artist or a designer? And when the curator has the ability to make, alongside their artists, how does this affect the show as a whole? Why does this even matter? The traditional forms of curating currently exist, but could the audience/viewer experience an exhibition differently if the ones who were creating and curating redefined their methodology as well?
Project Hong G begins to explore a possible role for a curator to assume. Hong G is a painter. Much of her work revolves around themes exploring the metamorphosis of memory as a space for time travel. Myself as a designer, I decided to assume the role as a curator when working with Hong G. During the brainstorming stage, we decided to take equal parts within creating the unknown. Because of mutual interests, it was decided that the concept or theme would revolve around memory. As individuals, do we remember the mundane? The days that are not memorable? If so, how and when? What does a mundane day look like? These were the questions that lead us to the project “process of remembering a day in the mundane” I gave the instruction to Hong G to write down her itinerary for three days. With this information, I chose what I believed to be the most unmemorable day.
The plan was that Hong G would paint for five days. Each day, I provided her with a new clue about the events of that day. The first day, she was given five constraints along with the clue. Each day, I lifted up a constraint, yet introduced a new clue. The itinerary I possessed was color coded with a key that separated the events of that day into necessity, transitional, relaxation and work. I chose to narrow down the subject to necessity. When things are done because it is a necessity, these events become habitual, which is something we may not reflect back on. The clues introduced a new color into the canvas which she could incorporate into her painting as well as the highlighted text revealing the events of the day. The hope was that a viewer would be able to experience the process of remembering the mundane. The project partially failed in this manner because the experimental territory of dealing with the unknown. New discoveries were made about how I operate as a curator. I had to let go of control, which is very difficult for me to do. Also, it was realized that next time, there needed to be more of a clear direction of how I wanted the piece to look so the constraints could be morphed around a more clear focused vision.
Project Luke explores the territory when the curator creates alongside with the Artist/Designer. Luke Johnson, a graduating MDP student was preparing for his Thesis exhibition. A problem emerged within his exhibition. As a media designer, Luke used the techniques of embedded observation, interventions and interviewing within his design work. Through these projects, he was able to work across a range of media platforms. In order to exhibit the artifacts created for each project, he came across the problem of how these artifacts would be displayed so the viewer could quickly understand what the artifacts represented. We decided to collaborate on the project because of my interest in portraiture and people knowing which was a big part of his thesis project. We realized, that he had a very defined methodology. Each project followed a certain process, which lead to the outcome. With this, we decided to design a series of labels curating his projects for the exhibition. Coming from a graphic design background, I assumed the role as the designer for this task. Luke provided me with the content, in which I broke down into a formula of what the artifact represented. The architecture for the formula was: Title, Question, Intervention+people+time + (process) = statement, designed outcomes, takeaway lessons and unexpected results.
This project reinforced my belief in that the curator should be a part of the making process if they possess the ability to do so. By doing so, the curator can have a better understanding of what it means to be an Artist, which can have the effect of creating a new experience for the viewer as well.