Rather than asking artists to submit a work that perhaps fit with a theme or model, curator Ben Street decided to create a sort of artistic ‘Secret Santa’. Each artist was asked to choose a piece that they would be happy to have altered (but not so rubbish that they were destined for the trash). The work was then sent, as randomly as geographical constraints allowed, to another artist. The receiver was then instructed to alter the work completely, partially or not at all. The results were then put on display.
There we have it ladies and gentlemen. Embodied in an exhibition, the answer to why we need curators. Curators may sometimes appear to simply arrange or postulate. Occasionally however, projects such as this arrive and remind us that they can produce something truly exciting, intriguing and even, shock horror, fun. The point being that curators can create an artistic space (conceptually or otherwise) that artists may never have conceived of by themselves.
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What Street has achieved is wonderful. To expand this partnership to a whole gallery community and to succeed, a victory. The artists created the art, but the curator instigated the process and created the environment for it to occur and be shared with the public. We may have too many curators and they may sometimes seem redundant or overly controlling, but Gifted shows us why we need them.
Rebecca Collins at Trebuchet Magazine
I'm wanting to put something profound and intellectual here but i just don't seem to find the words.
ReplyDeleteThis is an incredible concept that should be used more widely, or even used in the public domain...
What an incredibly kind thing to say, Sarah. Thank you. Watch this space...there will be more along those lines this year!
ReplyDeleteThese are all ideas i'm currently toying with at the minute, we will just have to see where they lead. So it will be fascinating to see what you have to say.
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