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Untitled

An explicit study of curation as a definition and as a practice, its historical contexts, altering states and

encapsulating applications.

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Curated By Sibley and Page

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The profession of curator is currently in a state of great disorientation. Whilst curating progressively grows into a commerce, it simultaneously generates its own narrative whilst it diversifies, channeling itself towards being a multifarious practice in which engenders substantial debate as to what it comprises. Today the desire to curate is uniquely apparent, the present day boom in curatorial studies and the influx of practitioners scrambling to gain the coveted and prestigious title holds a distinctly less inviting past. The manifestations in which have shaped the profession today as we know it, held very modest beginnings and were a far cry from the glamorous world that now awaits the successful. Once ‘care taker’ and ‘organiser’ the curator has now transitioned itself to fall under the highly respected positions of ‘author’ and ‘maker’, consequently, with these changing boundaries, the role of the curator inhabits a less pedantic approach in turn for one that favors creative outlet. With this shift from organiser to author comes the requirement to evolve and remain current, exciting, original and challenging. The term ‘curate’ has become so exhausted that it may now be

necessary to develop a new cognizant terminology surrounding curatorial practice, in turn to re-curate ‘curate’. It is through these manifestations of the curator and the resultant debates surrounding the curatorial techniques that have led to this publication, which seeks to encourage and suppor t the dialogue surrounding the complexity of the curatorial process. Originating in reclusive confines, today we see the curator working in a wide variety of outlets, from museums to exhibitions to the depar tment store, this publication remains concerned throughout with the circumstances and approaches involved with the remodelling of the curator. In examining the coalescing of historical contexts, modern day manifestations, conceptual enquiries, key practitioners within the field of curation and the contemporary ar tists with whose practice the curator now parallels, this publication highlights the ways in which the professionalism of curatorship has diversified. This has been through new unor thodox techniques which puncture the notions that curation is a term that can be contained within its primitive definitions. The ever-evoloving nature of the practice is defined only by the

audience that it addresses, and thus, remains for the most par t, void of the ability to be defined and ascribed to one thing. Whilst this publication serves not as a resistance, it embraces critique through identification, extraction and realisation of the ways in which works of ar t or ‘objects’ are displayed and presented through the curatorial approach. Much like the profession of curatorship, the process of exploration into the subjects covered in this publication inaugurated their own narrative, thoughts that arouse through research were slowed down and brought into existence, enabling them to narrate into form, forging them into something tangible and real through the act of texts and installation, both mediums highlight the process of modification that has led to curation to become a comprehensive term within modern consumerist culture. Serving as an conceptual, archival and research-based narration, www.untitled-sibleyandpage.com presents an extension to this publication, providing additional information and imagery associated with the project to fur ther suppor t and augment the dialogue within this field.

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Deriving from the Latin curare, “to care for”, the curator has seen its definition and role diversifying throughout history. The thir teenth century saw the term curator being applied to a parish priest, a person who cared for others and took spiritual charge, this extended itself throughout the four teenth century to those who cared for

The sixteenth century saw the definition that we may be more familiar with today, referring to those who ‘direct and coordinate activities … In operating

exhibiting institutions, such as a museum’ (Curator (Museums),1992:82). No longer was the curator someone who cared for others, the curator now cared for something which was of greater power and significance to society. The first curatorial models of this later definition have been evidenced to have begun during the Renaissance, it was during this time that private collections began to exist, commonly known in English as ‘cabinets of curiosities’ or the more familiar German term, ‘wunderkammers’. These were intimate private spaces developed by using the personal collections of an individual, of whom today we call the ‘curator’. Constructed around the idea that all objects were linked through similarities,

historically or through the visual context (Tate Learning, 2012) the collections would consist of rare curiosities, such as books, medals and plants. These wunderkammers were

Collections were generally only accessible to the owner himself, the collector may invite friends or wealthy powerful individuals in to his private collection, presenting the first example

The Dan Cox Library for the Unfinished Concept of Thingly Time

A project by Andy HoldenCubitt Galler y, London

17 February - 16 March 2012

‘minors above a cer tain age, a lunatic, a spendthrift, or other persons not regarded by the law as competent’ (Curator, 1995).

‘Intended to form a record of everything remarkable in the regions of nature and ar t, at times past or present, a sor t of museum in which every collector may deposit his rara avis’ (The Cabinet of Curiosities, 2010:4).

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of the private view, Whilst collections were generally only accessible to the owner himself, the collector might on a rare occasion invite friends or wealthy powerful individuals in to see his treasures, presenting early examples of the private view in its simplest form. This privacy began to change with the decline of the Renaissance, as a new intellectual movement the Age of Enlightenment began, bringing with it, the bir th of the national public museum. With knowledge and freedom on the Enlightenment’s agenda, the focus of the wunderkammer, as being a private place of study began to shift to one that centred on displaying objects that might interest individuals other than the collector himself. Ar thur MacGregor, curator of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum, outlines that

The very functions of the wunderkammers, meaning “wonder-rooms” became those of the museums which existed to hold collections of great curiosity for the public whilst still allowing for a space in which to study. With the cultural phenomenon of the museum, came the profession of curatorship. Curating became less of a haphazard set of actions, methods of cataloguing and presenting that had been used by those who collected for the wunderkammers became actions of great impor tance and significance,

actions that therefore needed to be studied and built upon just as much as the museums collections did.

Collections continued to be placed within national buildings for the public’s general use during the Age of Enlightenment, but it was not until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that a large number of museums were built. Described as ‘The Museum Age’ (Bazin, 2004) this period saw the museums evolving to fit the changing cultural values of the time. Museums were no longer simply homes for collections of the individual curiosities, instead, education for the public now became the manifesto of the museum. With this evolution of the context of the museums came the expansion, and once again change of the curator’s definition and role. New modes of organisation were needed as the museums grew in popularity and their collections grew in size. The previous museums, the cabinets of curiosities or wunderkammers, saw owners organising their collections in a personal manner. As collections were rarely seen by others the function of display was one of taste rather than academic reasoning. With the increase in funds given to museums to build upon their collections, curators were needed for their specialising knowledge and were appointed to care for collections based upon their schooling. This saw the introduction of professional programmes in the fields of museum and curatorial studies. 1992 saw the first postgraduate programme in Britain to specialise in curatorial practice, co-funded by Ar ts Council England and the Royal College of Ar t, this helped to raise

awareness that curation was not only an authoritative and respected practice, but also one that was fast becoming increasingly necessary within the ar ts and culture sector. Curators were no longer employed just to provide care for the collections as the curator now needed to extend this role to include interpretation and thus, must possess a knowledge of the past and the contexts in which ar t works and ar tefacts exist. The cabinets of curiosity have remanded an impor tant par t of the exhibition and ar t world throughout history and into the modern day. Although the nature of the organisation of collections is something that has remained within curation, the notion of privacy is something has been reviewed, and often eradicated. Today the wunderkammer has taken on many forms from public exhibitions to low key gatherings, commercial shops and Internet sites and is a direct link back to the historical nature of collecting items which invoke curiosity about the items or about the world around us. Modern day examples of these collections we see take place within the public domain and the implications of the wunderkammers are not those of an act of possession, wealth and structure. No longer is the idea of private ar t one of any great value; instead to curate a collection is to have created and interpreted something that interests others rather than just the collector himself and therefore this should be shared.

‘The cabinet of curiosity outgrew its secluded origins in the scholar’s study to develop it into an impor tant site for social interaction … A new platform had emerged in which polite society could interact with each other in impor tant new ways’ (MacGregor, 2007:69)

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“Collection of Chilled Goods”Sibley & Page

Supermarket Produce in Fridge 84 x 55 x 61 cm

2012

Photographed ‘as is’, “Collection of Chilled Goods” presents the installation that transforms the mundane objects of supermarket produce into a displaced terrain. Through forging the familiar into the unfamiliar, differentiation’s between ar t and life are explored. Presenting the products as objects for consideration, the installation poses questions surrounding the value of organisation and categorisation within our own private collections. Distinctively personal yet unnaturally displaced, “Collection of Chilled Goods” acts as a representation of the ideals through revealing an insight to the personal landscape of how one lives. Offering the dialogue between the value of ar t and the way it is consumed, this private yet obvious display of contemporarily reality not only ar ticulates to the ar t world, but to the voyeur in us all.

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The Museum’s Association suggests that the act of interpreting from the curator is to be seen as covering a range of diverse fields, such as researching, educating and displaying (The Museums Association, 2008) and thus, researching became a crucial aspect to the correct functioning of the museums’ new aims, and in turn, the curator had to take this on as a major par t of his practice. Without extensive research, collections would fail to provide an authentic and coherent knowledge base. Through research curators were able to maintain records and build correctly upon existing collections through donations from the public, the government and through auctions, without this, curators would fail to ensure that what they were displaying was for the public’s benefit. The curatorial role within institutions, and in turn society, became indispensable, the curator became the mediator, the arbiter of taste, the curator ultimately decided upon the knowledge that the visitor to the institution would gain, and understand. What was to be learnt became dependent upon the curator’s academic judgement. The curator provided their exper tise through their selection process, choosing the pivotal objects they believe to represent something, whilst eliminating those they believe are less significant and not wor thy of being exhibited.

This curatorial approach and the very relevance of the museum began to be questioned with the emergence of contemporary ar t, it was believed that the curatorial technique, and the museum became tiresome. The biggest criticism of the museum and its curatorial approach was once a collection had been interpreted and displayed, the curator simply says “Here it is” (Low, 1942) The curator no longer was to stay defined as someone who ‘cared for’ something, their practice expanded to those covering education and this caused uneasiness between ar tists, the visitors, theorists and the curators themselves. It was believed that once an object was situated within the museum, “we make our judgment in the knowledge, if not awe, of the fact that the exper ts have already said that “This is good” … The object has been enshrined (Cameron, 2004:70) Practicing ar tists at the time were thought to be the museum and curator’s biggest

critics, as those such as Damien Hirst, Marcel Broodthaers, Christian Boltanski and Karsten Bott increasingly began to question the functions of the museum, challenging the curator’s outmoded means to interpret and present collections by incorporating museological principles within their own work.

“By the ar tists imitating and critiquing the hierarchical systems of museums, their work addresses key issues relating to ownership, censorship, privilege and curatorial prejudice” (Putnam, 2001: 90).

Principal to the beliefs and approaches of many conceptual ar tists at the time, is the emotional characteristics that collections can hold. Whilst curators built upon historical records and collections to provide a knowledge of a par ticular movement or moment, ar tists viewed these collections as records which held experiences and memories. Whilst ar tists mimicked the curatorial approach in their own work, they unknowingly established primary sources in which alternative historical methods and arguments could form (Desai and Hamlin and Mattson, 2010:50).

Frankfur t-based ar tist Karsten Bott was known to employ the museological process of collecting and classifying within his own ar tistic practice. Bott incorporated the curator’s technique of building upon collections through collecting everyday un-sourceable objects. Since childhood, Bott collected a vast array of consumer objects, that had, at some point in time, satisfied human wants. Eventually these objects were catalogued into his “Archive of Contemporary History” which Bott founded in 1988, a collection only consisting of consumer throwaways. Although Bott incorporated the curatorial technique of building upon collections, his technique differed to that of the curator when it came to selection. There were no pivotal or significant objects within Bott’s collection that best interpreted the concept. In fact, it was quite the opposite, as a relationship was formed between every single object within his archive of half a million ar ticles. Fur ther curatorial principles were applied through Bott’s categories within his archive, much like the curator may categorise par ticular objects to a

specific movement, or in terms of the materials etc., Bott categorised his objects under unor thodox headings such as “death, occupations, family and household pets” (The Andy Warhol Museum, 2006). Bott explained his conceptual method of categorising to the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper as

‘putting a structure on the collection of his archive that defines things other than alphabetically’ (Bauer, 2002).

Through Bott’s individualistic taxonomy system, objects can easily be grouped under multiple categories, thus forming a fur ther critique of the curators limiting approach to categorising. Bott’s technique throughout his ar tistic practice not only challenged the ways in which curators collected objects and categorised collections, but also contrasted the fact that, whilst curators at the time took the approach of selecting a small number of specific objects within their collections to represent something, his interpretation and display of his archive was one that saw nearly 30,000 objects from his ‘Archive of Contemporary History’ spread out across a gallery floor for his installation exhibition entitled ‘Von Jedem Eins’ or ‘One of Each’ held at the OK Offenes Kulturhaus in Linz, 1993 (Putnam, 2001:31). For Bott, all the objects assembled the whole, the installation served almost as a physical archive, whilst at the time most archives were private and housed behind museum doors.

Ar tists believed that the archive served as a representation of our historical memory.

‘Ar tists asser ted the idea that this site of history should be examined not only cognitively but also physically, emotionally and viscerally’ (Desai and Hamlin and Mattson, 2010:51)

Eliminating the curatorial ideal of selecting a small number of objects within a collection to display, Bott’s approach meant that his installation exhibition provided a more authentic overview of history, rather than just the overview of history that the curator decides upon. Practicing ar tists who incorporated museological approaches

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within their work, like Bott, wanted to make ar t and collections more accessible through eliminating the traditional structures held within museums. Bott’s installation exhibition provided a space for self-initiated discovery, almost in the same sense that the past models of museums, the wunderkammers had. Bott provided a new approach to the selection process, which curators could later observe and incorporate into their own practice to maintain the popularity of the museum through its curatorial methods.

Archive of Contemporary History Karsten Bott

KOK Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz1993

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Waste NotSong Dong

Barbican, London15 February 2012 - 12 June 2012

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In 2012 Chinese ar tist Song Dong brought his exhibition ‘Waste Not’ to the UK, Originally conceived in 2005, the exhibition has travelled to multiple ar t establishments including the Museum of Modern Ar t in America. The large scale installation consisting of the collection of 10,000 items belonging to the ar tist’s mother is a direct commentary on the social and economic differences of generational thinking. Song Dong’s mother, Zhao Xiangyuan, collected the items on show over 5 decades and adopted the ‘waste not’ attitude that forms the exhibition as a way to deal with social and political states of turmoil, thus demonstrating a resourcefulness in times of need. The exhibition has been described as a

‘temporary museum for all those little things that we tend to take for granted and so often abandon.” (Pasternack, 2005).

This recognition of the museum-type structure of the exhibition is hard to ignore for any visitor to the colossal show. Held at the Barbican in London between 15 February - 12 June 2012, the exhibition contained a vast array of items including

toothpaste tubes, plastic bags, clothing, toys, boxes, books, shoes, pots, pans along with other consumer throwaways that one comes into contact with in a lifetime. The exhibition walks the visitor round an archival organised journey through the different items which are grouped through museological means in their respective categories. The exhibition has taken on the principles of museum presentation and display to show each item as an individual ar tefact whilst the grouping allows for the sheer quantity of items to be easily evaluated and addressed. Much like Bott, Song Dong’s exhibition incorporates the foundations of museology and the ar t of collection-keeping. As he moves his show from one venue to another, the exhibition itself becomes a museum of the life of an individual, utilising learnt curatorial methods to visualise and communicate his archive of items.

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Waste NotSong Dong Barbican, London15 February 2012 - 12 June 2012

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Waste NotSong Dong

Barbican, London 15 February 2012 - 12 June 2012

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As curators began to understand the many benefits that a working ar tist could provide to the museum, and to the curatorial approach, facing the criticism head on and to the surprise of many at the time, the curator began to invite practicing ar tists in to their once private collections. During this time in which contemporary ar t and the developments of the museums continued, it became increasingly impor tant for the curator to ensure that what was being done for the museum, in terms of curation, stayed relevant in order to increase visitor figures and income. Through inviting the ar tist to collaborate with the curator, a new up-to-date curatorial approach could be taken and learnt, the outdated techniques of presenting museum collections in historical and hierarchical systems could be replaced by the ar tists creative flair and his intuitive adventurousness. Peter Boreham, curator at the Guildhall Museum in Rochester, highlights that ar tists

“look at things in totally different ways, they can make very impor tant linkages between disparate objects which we might not see as curators” (Howar th and O’Reilly, 2011).

At this time in which the curator actively sought collaboration, ar tists became increasingly fixated with the ideation of

placement in a way which was previously allocated to the curatorial role.

The way in which we view the ar t object has been revolutionised by ar tists such as Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst. Duchamp’s 1917 ‘Fountain’, a standard urinal, was first submitted to the exhibition organised by the Society of Independent Ar tists. The board of directors, who were bound by the constitution to accept all members submissions, refused ‘Fountain’ as a submission for its lack or ar tistic originality, yet today we see ‘Fountain’ being considered to be one of the most influential pieces of modern ar t to date. Through Duchamp’s placement of the standard porcelain urinal he intended to allow the viewer to reevaluate the standard object as something else. This placement to generate ar t was arguably more of a curatorship than an ar tistic intervention and was highly connected with concept rather than creativity. Ar tists such as Warhol and Hirst followed suit whilst the ar t world began to become more receptive and suppor tive of conceptual ar t.

Or thodoxically, sharks were a matter of anatomy, science and nature, only experienced through the natural history ar tefacts seen within museums, yet “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”, first created in 1991, saw Damien Hirst immerse a thir teen-foot tiger shark in a tank of formaldehyde to preserve it, and place it in a contemporary gallery. Today, this piece is seen as one of the most iconic images of contemporary ar t. Hirst’s intention was to

“force the viewer out of their element by introducing into a gallery setting a shark that was real enough to frighten you” (Hirst, 1998)

Through isolating the shark from its natural habit, the placement itself caused the context or the medium. Here we see a shark, through its curatorial placement being presented to us as ar t.

This curatorial power of placement that the curator is able to harness through the creation of an exhibition reminds us that as the status and prestige of the curatorial role increase, so too does its influence as the ‘arbiter of taste’. Much in the same way that Hirst presents to us a shark as ar t rather than natural history, due to the connotations Hirst possesses by being recognised as an ar tist, so too the curator can present an ar tefact as ar t merely by its placement within the gallery context. Today we see placement and the concept culture being harnessed by the curator to socially interact with audiences and directly relate ar t to the world in which we live in. Seen as the researchers and intellectual figures of the ar t world, the curators are able to tap into an array of concepts and contexts created by ar tists and reappropriate their works to form new experiences within an exhibition, through creating recognition and juxtapositions. Not only is the modern day curator able to wield the power of their own placement, but also to appropriate the prestige of the ar tists’ placement to enshrine both par ties and the works of ar t exhibited. These interchangeable skills that ar tists and curators are able to experiment with via cross pollination and collaborations enriches both the role of the curator and the role of the ar tist through creating a new breed of ar tist-curators equipped to address a vast range of subject matter from creation through to form and placement.

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“Hearse”Sibley & Page

Found Purchased Object, Photo Colour Manipulation

2012

An homage to Damien Hirst, presented as a connotative association to the installation “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” (1991), “Hearse” cognitively suggests the original through a series of connective signifiers such as colour, subject matter, context and curatorial placement.

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Through collaboration, the curator and the ar tist can make contemporary ventures in the hope that the results will enhance the experience of those who visit, whilst continuing the cycle of stimulating exhibitions that drive forward the curatorial approach, adapting to suit the changing values of ar t and the museum at the time. Although the invitation to the ar tists was to enhance the curators knowledge and understanding and seen to be, for the general good of the museum, the experience of collaborating would be mutually beneficial. The curator offered the ar tist almost a laboratory to work in, as this was a place in which experiments could be under taken, as the materials, in the form of collections, were there for the ar tists to choose as they wished. Whilst curators and ar tists have many mutual aspects to their professions, both using interpretation and communication as the main principles to their work,

through using, in most cases, something tangible to present their ideas to others with the shared final conclusion that their work would broaden knowledge, pose questions and provoke opinion, the sharing of skills and ideas between the two professions would be inevitable and could be seen as an advantage to both. However arguably one of the most beneficial outcomes of the collaboration for the ar tists would be that their work was being seen by the increasing number of visitors, and for the curators, that their collections were likewise being appreciated by a larger audience. The museum became a place for the people, with the curators’ judgments on collections being replaced by those of ar tists, the visitors were able to explore the collections almost completely on their own, acquiring knowledge but now with pleasure and enjoyment. Over the time in which curators continued to invite ar tists into their institutions,

questions arouse surrounding the profession of curatorship, since the role of the curator seemed to have evolved unintentionally,

“was it now the curators job to locate new and more extreme situations for the artist to respond to?” (Wade,2000:28).

Curators embraced these concerns and continued to fur ther expand their practice to suit the changes of the institution and those of the ar ts. Ar tists began to recognise the

“positive evolutionar y role that institutions can play when their curators are more decorative to new ideas (Putnam, 2001:33).

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“which after life or death gave witness to that persons existence” (Putnam, 2001:42-43)

Curator Gavin Wade affirms this idea, believing that “When an artist has an idea which requires a huge amount of resources, energy, time, specialisation and research, they need to work with other people who can help them achieve their goals’, outlining that if we recognise this, then ‘hopefully we can set up a mutually beneficial group structure that can get on with the job, which is to utilise art.” (Wade, 2000:20)

They realised the benefits that the curator could bring to their diverse projects. Using the curators knowledge and their institutional and cultural power, ar tists were able to call upon the willing curator to help illustrate and materialise their ideas. These were not the only benefits that would come from the ar tist and curator co-producing work, as once again, curators were increasingly being valued as being as exper ts and distinct figures who the public trusted, the curator could ultimately make something credible just by placing it within the walls of the institution. For ar tists this could either be seen as a positive, and a way in which the ar tists could benefit from, or as another point to the curatorial role which ar tists could critique through their works. An example of this is the ‘Inventories’ works produced by Christian Boltanski in 1973, a project that Boltanski could only complete with the input of practicing

curators at the time. Boltanski sent proposals to sixty-two museum curators asking each of them if they could acquire the complete possessions of a depar ted person. In his letter to the museum curators, he outlined the nature of what he would like them to acquire for his project as objects

Only five out of the sixty-two institutions replied to Boltanski with the acceptance of his proposal, and these objects were later exhibited in galleries and museums in groups which naturally formed through the collections that each individual curator collected. The objects consisted of items such as furniture, appliances and general consumer cast-offs and were later exhibited under titles such as the ‘Inventory of objects that belonged to a woman of New York’,

which was exhibited in 1973, at the Centre National d’Ar t Contemporain, Paris. Boltanski’s ar twork was usually formed out of tragedies and death in which he exhibited the memories that were left by them and yet whilst ‘Inventories’ related to the ideas concerned with loss and memorial, another meaning was apparent, increasingly curators and ar tists needed each other to produce their work.

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If an exhibition or show is defined in its primitive form as a “public display" (of works of ar t, manufactured ar ticles, natural productions, etc.) Then London based ar tist Brian Griffiths latest exhibition held at the Vilma Gold in London titled 'The Invisible Show' makes itself apparent only through its title. Whilst the title at first implies that Griffiths’ show features no ar t works and nothing tangible, Griffiths’ ‘Invisibles’ are quite the opposite. A series of large cuboid metal sculptures concealed with blankets of beige canvas material are placed throughout the white gallery space of Vilma Gold, London.

If contemporary and conceptual ar t seeks to provide experience, then within a exhibition which may be truthful to the title ‘invisible’ we still, as visitors, see something, and we experience what is (or what is not) placed before us. The gallery in itself enshrines the work, so much so that even within a show which presents no work, the gallery informs us through enshrinement that there is something in front of us to experience and recognise.

We see Griffiths’ placing of overlooked or ‘invisible’ materials, colours and shapes at the forefront of his exhibition, as returning to the central concept of his show Griffiths’ openly demonstrates in the same way Boltanski does with his ‘Inventories’, that with the exhibitionary framing, ordinary objects appear significant, visible.

Inspired by the plight of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, Griffiths’ show is an exploration of ‘whether an exhibition can be an absurd feat of invisibility’.(Burns,2012)

The Invisible ShowBrian Griffiths

Vilma Gold, London12 January – 19 February, 2012

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Whilst the popularity of viewing contemporary ar t continued to grow, the number of institutions that would specialise in this field increased. 1986 saw the Ar ts Council responding to the demand for spaces committed to the viewing of contemporary ar t through opening and directing the Serpentine Gallery in London, a white cube institution only for the exhibition of modern and contemporary works.

“The white cube is usually seen as an emblem of the estrangement of the artist from a society to which it also provides access. It is a ghetto space, a sur vival compound, a proto-museum with a direct line to the timeless, a set of conditions, an attitude, a place deprived of location, a reflex to the bald curtain wall, a magic chamber, a concentration of the mind” (O’Doherty, 1999:87)

The gallery space possesses the responsibility for relaying works of ar t which appear within it and, the colour white, which is commonly used for gallery spaces, is par ticularly favoured. Within the gallery, the colour white has the ability to seamlessly frame the works which it surrounds, allowing them to remain uninterrupted, forming an “indefined surface, unfinishable, repeatable to infinity, something of which has a contiguity that remains unresolved” (O’Doherty, 1999:87). By the overzealous harnessing of white in gallery spaces, the colour itself has absorbed connotations of ar tistry, and we can refer to this sense of displacement as ‘white ideology’. Defined as a set of beliefs that centre around a midpoint of which appeals to an audience, ‘white ideology’ refers to a group of people who are familiar with the constructions and connotations of the white cube gallery space. The white of the gallery has been questioned, subver ted and re-appropriated since its beginnings. Thus, apparent developments within ar t history to explore this have been those of the collapse between distinct disciplines whereby, works are no longer confined to existence within one medium. Conceptual ar t gave way to seeing an idea formed to translate into multiple existing groupings of media with the ar tist becoming fur ther concerned with the appropriate methods for communicating ideas.

“The art object was toppled from its pedestal and shaken from its frame"(O’Doherty, 1999:14).

The ar tists began to expose the world around them, causing all aspects of the ar t world to be reconsidered and began to use the conditions of the gallery space to turn it on its head in order to make it the subject of exploration. Manzoni was one such ar tist who, explored through interrogation and transformation the very ideation of white (which stemmed from the colour of the gallery space), not only in the sense of creation, but also that of reception and redefinition:

“I am quite unable to understand those painters who, whilst declaring an active interest in modern problems, still continue even today to confront a painting as if it was a surface to be filled with colour and forms according to an aesthetic taste which can be more or less appreciated, more or less guessed at. They paint a line in, step back, look at their work with head on one side and half-closed eye, then jump forward again and add another line of colour ; and these gymnastics continue until the painting is filled in and the canvases is covered: the painting is finished: a surface of unlimited possibilities is now reduced to a kind of receptacle into which unnatural colours and artificial meanings are forced. Why shouldn’t this receptacle be emptied? Why shouldn’t this surface be freed? Why not seek to discover the unlimited meaning of total space, of pure and absolute light? “ (O’Doherty, 1999:25)

Famed for his works featuring often a ‘nothingness’, Manzoni provides us with instances of white within his works of which form dialogue between ar tificer and ar tefact. Best known for his ‘achromes’, Manzoni began experimenting in 1957 on a series of works featuring various materials such as gesso, kaolin and porcelain in order to bring the invisible to light. Manzoni’s goal was to “render a surface completely white (integrally colourless and neutral) far beyond any pictorial phenomenon or

any intervention extraneous to the value of surface.

A white that is not a material in evolution or a beautiful material, not a sensation or a symbol or anything else: just a white surface that is simply a white surface and nothing else. Better than that: a surface that simply is: to be (to be complete and become pure) (Celant, 1988:27)

Whilst to the eye ‘achromes’ appear white, many of the works are crafted through the use of colourless substances, thus, reflecting upon the connotations of white rather than the colour in itself, this case of reduction is described by Manzoni as a way to banish the need for narrative, producing a form of ar tistic freedom,

“We absolutely cannot consider the picture as a space on which to project our mental scenography. It is the area of freedom in which we search for the discover y of our first images. Images which are as absolute as possible, which cannot be valued by that which they record, explain and express, but only for that which they are: to be.” (Celant, 1988:56)

If nothing is apparent then nothing is available to subjective criticism, the disembodiment of his ar t allows for an open interpretation and exploration.

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Auto FocusCeal Floyer

Lisson Galler y, London2002

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An influence of Manzoni is that of Rober t Rauschenberg whose monochromatic “White Paintings” appeared as blank canvases during the 50’s. Rauschenbergs purpose of reducing paintings to their most essential nature is an act to relay a pure experience. Here we can see the connotations of ‘white ideology’ being actively explored through his use of the neutralising colour within his works. In 1958 French ar tist Yves Klein took exploration of white ideology fur ther when he held an exhibition at the Iris Cler t Gallery titled “The Void”.

“My paintings are now invisible and I would like to show them in a clear and positive manner, in my next Parisian exhibition at Iris Clert’s” (Stich, Sidra. Yves Klein. Hayward Galler y. London, 1994.)

This statement, although expressing the ar tists intentions of showing nothing, also highlight the prestige of white in which he had encased his nothing within. The act of having an exhibition featuring nothing but white walls and a white painted cabinet implied that

the concept of his show was that of the white in which it was encased. His emphasis on the colour through the lack of distraction allowed for the colour itself to be the sole focus. This same notion was later explored by Laurie Parson in the “578 Broadway, 11th floor (1990) exhibition held at the Lorence-Monk Gallery in New York and Roman Ondak’s “ More Silent Than Ever” (2006) held at GB Agency in Paris both of which consisted only of white walls. This exploration of white transcends into more than just the connotations of the colour on walls. Ar tist Ceal Floyer presented “Auto Focus” in 2002 which consisted of white projection onto a white wall. This white on white exploration emphasises the beauty and pureness of the colour and reconditions it as something to be specifically viewed. In the same year Alfredo Jaar’s “Lament of the Images” housed a brightly lit empty screen which to an audience appears to por tray white making the colour the forefront and allowing the act of reflection to take place. By focusing on ‘nothing’ we are able to focus on everything we hold inside ourselves, the

colour white asks of an audience that which the ar tist holds most impor tant, emotive reflection.

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(Above) White Painting Robert Rauschenberg1951

(Left) White Painting Robert Rauschenberg1951

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White Painting Robert Rauschenberg

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Lament of The ImagesAlfredo JaarLouisiana Museum of Modern Art2002

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The VoidYves KleinIris Clert, France1958

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“White Entities “

Found Purchased Objects (71), White Spray Paint, White Acr ylic

Sibley & Page

2012

With endless possibilities for transference, “White Entities” are physical canvases; deploying a strict material form of reiteration, they generate a medium for the communication of the substance in which they are encased. Using their palpable corporeality, the objects allow the communication of the white colouration to become uniquely apparent where otherwise overlooked.

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Found White Interiors, White Acr ylic

Sibley & Page

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Water, White Acr ylic , Wall

Sibley & Page

2012

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Whilst the building of galleries and museums similar to the Serpentine increased throughout the late nineteenth century, ar tist run exhibitions also formed. 1988 saw the exhibition ‘Freeze’ being held in one of London’s empty dockland warehouses. Curated by ar tist Damien Hirst, this exhibition held a number of works from the members of the Young British Ar tists, a term used to define a core group of Goldsmith College students during the 1980s to the late 1990s. It was thought that ar tists wanted to have more creative authority over how their work was exhibited, and often they would choose to do so in unusual spaces away from the institutions. ‘Freeze’ led the way to exhibition making being viewed as an ar tistic form, a natural extension of the ar tistic practice, it was believed that

With the ideation surrounding exhibitions expanding into the territories of ar t making, the curators found a parallel, taking place for them too, as a new coterie of curators emerged, the freelancers. The freelance curators had no ties to a par ticular institution, and need not work under the restrictions of collections and categories, but instead could indulge themselves within the boundlessness of the contemporary ar t world. This new curatorial approach was forged by the work of curator Harald Szeemann, thought to be the first curator to work away from an institution thus generating the definition ‘freelance curator’ himself, Szeemann constructed exhibitions through his own creative wants, discarding the traditional curatorial practice seen in institutions. Szeemann’s exhibitions were developed through rejecting aesthetic categories and arranging the ar t through themes of non-chronological arrangement, his aim was to

Best known for directing a number of Venice Biennales, and being the first curator appointed to direct a

‘Documenta’ exhibition, a modern and contemporary ar t exhibition event which happens once every five years in Kassel, Germany. Szeemann went on to curate an estimated two-hundred exhibitions throughout his career, forming close working relationships with the ar tists he favoured and wanted to exhibit. For him

Metaphorically speaking, Szeemann was the auteur, as he produced the script and chose the best actors (ar tists) and props (ar t works) that suited the film (exhibition). Whilst the auteur theory originally formed during the 1950s, which was a time in which filmmakers felt their creative influence and impor tance being overshadowed by that of the actors they hired. Today we see this term being applied to the curator who is more engaged with the making of meaning, better known today as the ‘exhibition-makers’. Szeemann’s curatorial innovation led the very idea of exhibition as ar t and curator as ar tist. Now we see

This critical view point was written by ar tist Daniel Buren in his essay ‘Exhibitions of an Exhibition’ in reply to Szeemann’s 1972 ‘Documenta 5’ exhibition. Although this essay was written in 1972, we see Buren’s predictions coming true. Since Szeemann and the ‘Documenta 5’ exhibition, a number of independent curators have established themselves under the creative curatorial approach, so much so that today the definition of curator almost has no links to its original historical meaning at all, whilst we watch the professionalism or as some may say, the de-professionalism of curatorship form, we see Buren’s second prediction manifesting. Listed alongside ar tists such Fischli and Weiss, Walker Evans, Cindy Sherman and over one hundred other influential contemporary ar tists who exhibited at the ‘10,000 Lives’ 8th Gwangju Biennale in 2010 lays Ydessa Hendeles, an acknowledged international curator. A biennale that sets out to examine our emotional obsessive relationship with images saw Hendeles stage a large scale exhibition featuring no ar tists, but rather, ‘Par tners’ (The Teddy Bear Project) featured 3000 photographs of teddy bears that Hendeles collected herself, which she then went on to present in a exhibition installation.

The photographs fill the room leaving little wall space visible. Exhibited together, the photographs form a small historical overview of lived experiences, representing the relationship between the owners and their teddy bears. The construction of the installation, mimicking an archive room, suits Hendeles’ curatorial narrative well. Like Szeemann, Hendeles produced her own narrative, however her exhibition making differed to Szeemann’s, as whilst he curated a group of ar tists’ work to form his exhibition narrative, Hendeles worked much like the ar tist Bott when curating her ‘Par tners’ exhibition, collecting and presenting the acquired photographs in reply to her own exhibition proposal. Hendeles describes her approach as

“the process of making an exhibition is, at once, abstract and real, concrete and conceptual; as such it is the same as making art” (Millar, 2000:132).

‘reveal correspondences between works from what may be ver y distinct periods and cultures’ (Meijers, 1996:5)

“the museum or the place of an exhibition was a Platonic site for the realisation of a subjective dream of art … realising his own dreams and ideas through using the art of many different kinds of practitioners” (Rosenthal, 2005)

’more and more the subject of an exhibition tending not to be the display of artworks, but the exhibition of the exhibition as a work of art … today it is possible to imagine that we are not far-off from having a large-scale exhibition directed by a great organiser-author who proposes the first exhibition without any artists at all’ (Buren, 2003).

“conceiving and executing each show as an artistic embodiment … using an “artistic process to create a site-specific curatorial composition that interweaves narratives from disparate discourses using disparate elements” (Hendeles, 2011).

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(Left) Five Car StudEdward Kienholz Documenta 5, Germany1972

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A recent exhibition which showcases this ar tistic and limitless form of curation initiated by Szeemann is that of 'Topophobia' curated by Eggeber t-and-Gould held at the Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London. Understood as an irrational dread of cer tain places or situations Topophobia is a travelling exhibition which features a number of ar tists’ work across a broad range of mediums. The curatorial project of this show deals with the expansion and contradiction of space as it occurs between the touring venues. The ar tworks are curated much like the curatorial technique of Szeeman, rejecting outmoded curatorial arrangements, Topophobia has been ar ticulated into multiple versions due to the sequence of different exhibition spaces

The spaces themselves function as the exhibition, concluding the concept of dis/locatedness and dis/placement'. Topophobia seeks to join spaces (and the fear of them) with the works of ar t, delivering each show as a creative manifestation, combining separate ar ticles to create space-unique curatorial formations.

Much like the Topophobia exhibitions, Hendeles' approach to curating an exhibition can be thought to also uncover and explain a unique curatorial definition as, whilst Hendeles interweaves disparate elements to form her exhibitions, she in turn interweaves disparate professions to do so, forming the hybrid profession of collector-curator-ar tist. Through staging an exhibition with no ar tists, she herself became the ar tist, and through her own production of meaning and exhibition making technique, Hendeles remained the curator.

‘the reconfiguration of installations, the addition and subtraction of elements in a series, and the inclusion of late new artists’ commissions’ (Topophobia, 2012)

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TopophobiaExhibition curated by Eggebert-and-Gould

Danielle Arnaud Galler y, London13 January - 19 February, 2012

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“Unknown Artists”

Outsourced Film Photographs (111), Picture Frames

Sibley & Page

2012

A gallery space projects the connotation that what is contained within it is art. This said there are two things which transform a collection of articles into an exhibition of art, the placement via a curator, and the gallery space in which the curator places them in. Transcending the traditional role of the curator “Unknown Artists” presents imagery from outsourced and unidentifiable artists, depicting through typology three family archives. With ‘art works’ being collated from multiple sources, the authoritarian role is transferred to the conceiver of the exhibition, the curator. Responsible for inception, selection and communication of the exhibition, the curator is transfixed to creator or exhibition maker and thus author.

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“Exhibition-Maker”Sibley and Page

Right Hand, Left Hand, Paint

2012

Photographed directly after the installation of an exhibition “Exhibition-Maker” is an exhibit of artistically embellished hands depicting creative residue transferred during the curatorial process.

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“Exhibition-Maker”Sibley and Page

Right Hand, Left Hand, Paint

2012

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Now bestowed with more freedom, today we see the contemporary curator creatively in charge of the production of the exhibition and increasingly being concerned with more than the retinal copy of an individual ar t work.

An exhibition’s message which is a composite of the medium and the concept in situ, now forms the intellectual experience for the audience and responsibility for this experience is placed within the curators hands in the form of the task of selecting and creating a location or locations which complement and address the works are exhibited. However, whilst the gallery space poses oppor tunities for the curator and ar tist, problems can occur, and there are different choices. Which space best encases the works? What connotations does any given gallery space contain? Will the space itself help with the communications of the works or are there alternative spatial requirements needed? Choice of space in which works are presented is fundamental to the presentation of any given show and once chosen, the works placed within the gallery space need to create the appropriate poetics to stimulate the discussion, to intrigue and to maximise the intellectual exploration and engagement of a viewer. A narrative

is needed, to guide the viewers with a sense of curatorial education whilst allowing oppor tunity for the impor tant personal exploration which, is intrinsic to the success of a show. The sites where works are selected and presented have become as significant as the ar tists and works chosen and we now see a vast number of spaces and locations utilised for the ar t/gallery space, from the white cube to the derelict building. When entering the gallery, the eye focuses on the whole, the works themselves and the structure in which they are encompassed within, can heighten or detract value from the show, all choices the curator makes in order to directly affect the works exhibited. The gallery becomes the place of experience and par t of the view, becoming ar t in itself. Kur t Schwitters exhibition Merzbau feature a number of installation based ar tworks filling his family house which was presented as a number of connected rooms. Works were created within the space using the surrounding structures to extend the viewing experience. Schwitters choice of architecture directly informed the creation and curation of the ar tworks, which remained projected throughout the space and thus affected how the work was created, addressed and viewed.

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The MerzbauKur t Schwitters

Family House, Germany1923-1937

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Today, like Schwitters use of architecture, we see a vast number of spaces and locations utilised for the ar t/gallery space from the white cube to the derelict building to the increasingly popular ‘pop ups’. Recent exhibitions featuring appropriate placement include the 2011 Jamie Reid ‘Peace Is Tough’ show held at the Bear Pit in London and Lydia Giffords 2012 ‘Midday’ exhibition held at the David Rober ts Ar t Foundation, London.

Whilst Jamie Reid is famed for his ar t works during the 70’s with the British punk rock band The Sex Pistols’ in which his works suppor ted the bands rebelliousness, ‘Peace is Tough’ was a show consisting of two apparent par ts, the first showing a retrospective of Reid’s works from his time with The Sex Pistols’ and the second seeing a far more muted collection of recent personal works by Reid himself. For Peace is Tough, the curatorial team worked alongside Illuminate Productions, an ar t and music festival to utilise the Bear Pit, a run-down dual level building in Southwark, London. That of which the audience may be most familiar with rests Reid’s work from The Sex Pistols’ era on the lower floor, curated in a salon style, so that the space and style of the hang itself created a busy and almost chaotic atmosphere which reflected the punk rock era to which the exhibition nods. The space itself guided the audience diagonally to a staircase which lead to the second par t of the show, in a quieter, smaller and more serene second floor which aesthetically was far less derelict than the floor below. Hung here with more order and visual space were Reid’s more recent works, curated far differently than the floor below. The space allowed the audience to better consider the works that were being presented to them, through the use of a grid and equal space between works, so each ar t work could be viewed singularly, and in this case, the space became par t of the ar t, guiding and emphasising the experience for the audience to allow for different levels of engagement and exploration.

Midday features painter, sculpture and installation ar tist Lydia Giffords latest works within the white cube gallery, The David Rober ts Ar t Foundation, London

consisting of paintings and sculptures, Gifford creates in-situ installations within the gallery itself, allowing for the gallery to form a space for experimentation, a testing ground and a mental space. Her works within Midday make apparent the impor tance of experience and self discovery, and, through removing the need for a studio space, Gifford’s works are attached to their context. They originate from the place in which she works, creating their own conditions, limitations and perceptions. The lack of hierarchy within the exhibition is apparent, the exhibition is a space of possibility,

Gifford proposes a common ground where her works are activated and reinvented through critiquing the relevance of the studio space whilst questioning the impor tance and ar t of the public gallery.

We as the spectators enter the gallery space with the notion that we have little to add to that which has been crafted before us, other, than our emotional par ticipation and interpretation of the works. We need only our eyes to absorb the environment we find ourselves in as this projects a sense of encasement and purity that is detached from the outside world, transcending time and our own personal notions of self. Thus, we do not consider ourselves par t of the ar t upon entry, we are more intruding bodies which are only present to observe and reflect upon that which we experience.

‘be it a mental space, or more physically, the space of a page, a room, a cardboard box: a support structure’. (Gifford, 2012)

“The wall, the context of the art, has become rich in a content it subtly donated to the art. It is now impossible to paint up an exhibition without sur ver ying the space like a health inspector, taking into account the esthetics of the wall which will inevitably “artify” the work in a way that frequently diffuses its intensions. Most of us now “read” the hanging as we would chew gum - unconsiously and from habit.” (O’Doherty, 1999:29)

We trust that what we see before us has been created to relay that of which was intended, the colour of the walls, hanging of the works and spacial elements that make up the environment we enter all become a live par t of the experience

“The white cube became art-in-potency, its enclosed space an alchemical medium.” (O’Doherty, 1999)

Midday - Lydia GiffordDavid Rober ts Ar t Foundation, London.

27 January - 24 March 2012

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“Gallery 211, (Untitled)”Sibley & Page

White Paint, Plasterboard, Concrete, Pine wood, Steel, Fluorescent Lighting Tubes, Electricity, Stainless Steel, Iron, Corrugated PVC, Nails, Screws, Plastic Socket, Electrical Wires, Tape.

17’ 1” x 13’ x 10’ 2”

2012

The gallery space and all its comprising components, an empty vessel, art.

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“Gallery 211”Sibley & Page


17’ 1” x 13’ x 10’ 2”

2012

Excess gallery material emphasised as art.

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17’ 1” x 13’ x 10’ 2”

2012

Excess gallery material emphasised as art.

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White Paint, Plasterboard, Concrete, Pine wood, Steel, Fluorescent Lighting Tubes, Electricity, Stainless Steel, Iron, Corrugated PVC, Nails, Screws, Plastic Socket, Electrical Wires, Tape, Mirror.

17’ 1” x 13’ x 10’ 2”2012

Reflection of Gallery 211 framed as art.

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In the modern day world saturated by adver tising and information, the exhibition has become much more an experience and an event than it has been in the past. In order to be successful and to retain its impor tance in the fast paced modern world an exhibition must effectively engage an audience and must harbour an event-like association of the moment within the mind of the audience, translating into a memory which can be easily tapped into upon reflection. Thus if the creational intervention refers to the act of taking, interpreting and displaying, this act of intervention directly structures how an audience views what is placed before them. In the same way that a supermarket is arranged to guide a shopper around the stores entirety to maximise product encounter through a complicated system of product placement and reorganisation, a curator structures an exhibition to ensure an audience engages with the work in as many receptive ways as possible. The curator is responsible for the communication between ar tist and audience, and works to ensure it is being clear, emotive and responsive. Creating rivers of interest, a curator strives to seamlessly direct an audience through a body of work in a way that an audience can submerge in and understand. Without the creational middleman works can be subject to a lack of clarity, and can be unfocused within its message. A logical sense of problem solving must be deployed in order to create this level of intellectual experience, as one must understand what needs to be communicated in order to ensure it is relayed to the audience correctly. The curator deploys a level of intellectual experience, as one must understand what needs to be communicated in order to ensure it is relayed to the audience correctly. The curator deploys a level of problem

solving in order to communicate to a previously uninformed audience the intended understanding. Exper tise in the concept that is being curated can only begin to become an effective tool if the exper tise is relayed to someone with no preexisting knowledge. Without the skill involved in the retelling of the story, the exhibition is void. To be an ‘exhibition maker’ is to be held responsible for the direct communication and the direct retelling of the works within an exhibition. The curator structures the thoughts and intentions of the ar tist to relay a message which has the ability to engage the audience on multiple levels, thus creating an experience of engagement. One cannot place ar t on an undecided wall and expect it to reach and communicate to a audience, what surrounds the work must also be considered as either a help or hindrance to communication and be adjusted accordingly.

This level of creating a experience and thus an event has found itself being called ‘the private view’ a term of which refers to something that is only obtainable by a minority. Whilst private often refers to the act of secrecy, within the ar t world this is quite the opposite, as it is the event of sharing works between chosen people before being opened to the public to view. Whilst this privacy is held by an ar tist throughout the stages of production of works, at the time of the exhibition, this privacy is handed to a team of curators, gallerists and publicists, who will go on to select others to share the privacy with first hand. The private view allows for the first stages of the ar tists work to become accessible and it is through this process that the ‘event’ is created. This allows the chosen few, a chance to socialise and celebrate with like-minded others and today, this is more often that not at the forefront of the

If a tree falls in a forest does it make a sound? If nobody experiences it then nobody can know, only the tree itself and that which it falls on may be affected. In this same way ar t without an audience is a personal indulgence. An expression or a record, without an audience it cannot inform and it cannot be experienced. If the same tree falls in a forest surrounded by spectators, the motion becomes an event, something to be witnessed, an event that stirs thoughts, emotions and reactions from the spectators, the tree becomes significant to those who experience its descent from the sky which it has inhabited.

private view. While the ar t world was once shrouded with pretentiousness, it is now structured by prestige. The private view becomes a status symbol, with concerns about how many people attend, who attends and the networking oppor tunities throughout becoming the focal points, leaving the work behind.

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“La Châsse du Pape Côtes du Rhône Reserve Red”Sibley & Page

Wine glass, La Châsse du Pape Côtes du Rhône Reser ve Red Wine, Picture Ledge

2012

Solitary glass of wine positioned as art in favour of the private view.

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Over time, the result of these collapsing definitions of the curator and the new ways in which they had begun to work, led to a changing perception of the profession as a whole. Previous models of curatorship saw the curator with no public identity and museum curators were as unknown as the finance team heading the budget proposals. Today, it is not uncommon for a curator’s name to be at the forefront of an exhibition, with the re branding of the curator as ar tist, and as a result of celebrity culture, we are now as familiar with the term ‘curated by’ as we are with any general common knowledge. 2009 saw Ar t Review magazine’s annual list of the 100 most prominent and impor tant figures in the ar t world feature curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist as number one above a wealth of practicing ar tists and international figures such as Bruce

Nauman, Jeff Koons, Liam Gillick and Ai Weiwei. Obrist has retained his position in the top two since 2009, highlighting the transformation that curatorship has undergone in the last few years, and the ‘superstar’ status that the curator is now able to obtain has authored an inundation of competitiveness within the profession.

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“Hans-Ulrich Obrist”Sibley & Page

Projector, inter views featuring Hans-Ulrich Obrist

2012

“Hans-Ulrich Obrist” sees the curator enshrined. Projecting a series of interviews featuring that of curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist, the installation highlights the celebrity and ‘superstar’ nature we see today of curatorship.

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“Hans-Ulrich Obrist”Sibley & Page

Projector, inter views featuring Hans-Ulrich Obrist

2012

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Whilst we familiarise ourselves with this new term ‘curated by’, the debate surrounding the de-professionalism continues. Increasingly the term is becoming so far removed from its original notion of exper tise and intention that it sits as nothing more than an exhausted signifier of the ar t world. We now see the words ‘curator’ or ‘curated’ being used to describe vocations outside of the museum, and more often than not, the word curated is applied to anything that has involved an interpretation, selection and presentation process. Today we see music festivals, chef ’s menus, concept stores and cosmetic ranges being ‘curated’ or ‘curated by’ someone.

We are now an ‘Experience Economy’, a term founded by marketing pioneers Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, (1999). With the abundance of gift shops, cafes, bars and restaurants within museums and ar t galleries, visiting a museum is now an experience, a ‘day out’ in which we can take a souvenir home from the gift shop and archive into our own personal ‘curated’ collections.’ If we look to how we present the ‘collections’ within our home, the photographs we choose to hang, the books we select to show, a lot of what we do may count as curation. Much like the wunderkammers, our personal goods represent a message which we wish to convey to others, yet the message is one of character and taste rather than being an intent to inform educationally or ar tistically.

“In the context of curational practice in the 21st centur y, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is you will be an ultracurator soon (as well as millionaires) The bad news is so will ever yone else” (Nedkova, 2000:123)

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“Personal Curation”Sibley & Page

Found Installation

2012

“Personal Curation” depicts the ways in which curation is being appropriated by the wider populace into the mainstream of everyday.

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Found Installation

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Found Installation

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Global curator Okwui Enwezor tries to demystify the reappropriation of the term by outlining that

For years we have been under the influence of the curator’s judgment, we trusted their exper tise, believing that what was being presented to us in museums and galleries were carefully selected and only for our benefit. A similar thought process occurs when an experience or object has been ‘curated’, the very term connotes prestige. If

Then through implying that something has been curated, automatically it becomes more attractive to the consumer. This idea of cultural curators influencing our buying decisions has been coined as ‘curated consumption’ (Trend Watching, 2004). Whilst goods and services continue to be ‘curated’ for us, as we fall fur ther into the exhibition of the everyday, the very definition of curating will eventually loose all ties to its primitive terminology.

An example of curated consumption that aims to ensure a personalised ‘curated’ experience for its customers is that of international home furnishing franchise IKEA. Founded by Ingvar Kamprad, a

Swedish entrepreneur, the IKEA ‘concept’ (as it is referred to throughout IKEA’s branding and structure) was formulated to provide high quality furniture at frugal prices. The IKEA franchise now consists of more than 300 stores in more than 35 countries and has more than 130,000 co-workers (IKEA.com, 2012). The self named stores which carry the brand’s extensive range of products are described as where the furniture ‘comes to life’ and the brand encourages interactivity on all levels by allowing their customers to who they refer to as visitors, to fully engage with the products as if they were in their own homes. Every par t of the IKEA store acts as a window into the life that could be had if the goods interacted with were to be purchased. Serving their products as props, IKEA combine these and their services as a way to create a environment that engages the visitors in a personal way, providing a deepened experience in which the visitors become the par ticipants, allowing for a physical, emotional and intellectual connection between them and the furniture.

“we live in an exhibitionary context … we are each in different ways always embedded in a potential exhibition, from the mall to the high street” (Enwezor, 2000:121),

“Goods and ser vices are no longer enough, and the commodity status of objects limit their economic potential” (Haq and Trevor, 2008:4)

“Inside the IKEA store, there are hundreds of inspirational displays - from realistic room settings to real-life homes, all with product combinations that provide fresh ideas and know-how on contemporar y interior design” boasts the IKEA website, “There are up to 10,000 different products offered in some IKEA stores. There are many new products introduced throughout the year in the IKEA store. This gives visitors huge possibilities to find solutions that best suit their needs.” (IKEA.com, 2012)

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Whilst everything within IKEA is placed before the consumer with the notion of self discovery, the items are placed in a way which entices the consumer in to consider the ideas that are actually placed before them as needed and desired rather than merely being suggested to them. The spaces which appear within the IKEA’s stores are curated as personal spaces. They form fully functional situations with even the kitchen cupboards containing pots, pans, and a wealth of other utensils. Children’s bedrooms are laid out with colourful ensembles of books lining the shelves and living spaces provide notes that closely resemble the organisation

of a family, with every detail having been thought through to make the consumer feel at home in a store containing items the majority visiting wished they owned. This curated interactive experience of shopping leads the consumer to feel special, almost as though the things placed before them have been tailored to their specific needs. Ignoring the items which do not personally relate to them, they see only the potential of the things they can use and that they can recognise within their lives. The prestige of feeling that something has been crafted personally for you and only you, entices the consumer to continue to buy, so, today we see curated consumption fast

becoming a powerful tool as the wider populace wish to feel their shopping experience is catered or ‘curated’ to their exact needs and thus today we see this concept of curating ones life through the act of selecting, purchasing and placing consumerist objects together in order to create a ‘meaning’ finding itself under scrutiny as an excuse to indulge in high end consumption.

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“Curated Consumption”Sibley & Page

Found Installation Curated by IKEA

2012

“Curated Consumption” presents a series of images that document the changing roles of the curator within modern day society. Identifying the acts of the consumerist world which has adopted curatorial techniques to aid selling “Curated Consumption” observes the ways in which the furniture store IKEA utilises curation to promote consumership to its visitors. .

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This project began as an investigation that aimed to define what it meant to be a curator today yet this proved to be problematic as an abundance of research highlighted that through the common use of the term ‘curator’, increasingly the profession is used to authenticate and provide credibility to significantly more varied outlets and mediums than this publication could have foreseen. The profession and its duties became shrouded by a lack of clarity and connection between the fields and projects that the term was used within. As a result, this publication began to diverge into an exploration of these varied definitions and applications. ‘Carer’, ‘collector’, ‘curator’, ‘exhibition maker’, ‘curator ar tist’, ‘author’, ‘maker’ and ‘curator of consumption’, are few among the multiple definitions of the curator that arouse through this investigation. Through the study of these definitions and the diversified professionalism of curatorship, this publication was able to uncover how the evolution of the term and adjoining practice has led to the curated consumerism world flooded by the prestige of the title carried over from the ar t world.

So what can we conclusively say the definition of curator and retrospectively curation is? Surely we cant in any great detail, this project has suppor ted the debate that the term is as mercurial as that of the ar t world which it circulates. Ever evolving and changing, the placid description of ‘someone who selects and places things’ is all that we can be ultimately sure of. We have been able to understand how and why the nature of curation and the curator have changed and continue to do so, thus, have been able to eliminate the need for a single definition, instead replacing it with a deepened understanding of the ways in which its constant evolution benefits the audiences it contacts.

Much like the ar t world its ability to rest and become stationary is over thrown by its audiences’ rejection of such static behaviour. Thus, we may never be able to define curation as one thing as it may never settle to be one, it is as much in the hands of the audiences it seeks to please as it is the practitioners to whom the title curator belongs.

It may now be necessar y to re-curate ‘curate’.

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146Curated by Sibley & Page 2012

“Live Feed”Sibley & Page

Webcamera, Ustream.com

2012

Acting as a documentation of the complex process of curation of which encapsulates researching, planning, organising, installing and constructing, “Live Feed” provides further insight into the curatorial practice in its current manifestations. To view the ever expanding archival extension of this book and its works including the live feeds visit www.untitled-sibleyandpage.com

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The Dan Cox Library for the Unfinished Concept of Thingly TimeExhibition Imagery - Sibley & PageA project by Andy HoldenCubitt Galler y, London2012

“Collection of Chilled Goods” Installation and Imager y Sibley & Page2012

Archive of Contemporary History Karsten BottKOK Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz1993http://edu.warhol.org

Waste NotExhibition Imagery - Sibley & PageSong Dong Barbican, London2012

“Hearse”Installation and Imager y Sibley & Page2012

The Invisible ShowExhibition Imagery - Sibley & PageBrian Griffiths Vilma Gold, London2012

Piero Manzoni: A Retrospective‘Achromes’Piero MonzoniGagosian Galler y, New York2009http://www.artnet.com

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Auto FocusCeal FloyerLisson Galler y, London2002http://blog.apiarystudios.org/2011/03/nothing-works/

White Painting Robert Rauschenberg1951http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org

White Painting Robert Rauschenberg1951www.momentc.blogspot.co.uk

White Painting Robert Rauschenberg1951http://artforum.com

Lament of The ImagesAlfredo JaarLouisiana Museum of Modern Art2002http://www.moma.org

The VoidYves KleinIris Clert, France1958http://www.theartblog.org

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“White Entities “Installation and Imager y Sibley & Page2012

“White Entities “Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012

“White Entities “Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012

Five Car Stud Documenta 5Kassel, Germany1972http://lacma.files.wordpress.com

PartnersYdessa Hendeles 10,000 Lives’, 8th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea2010http://www.designboom.com/

TopophobiaExhibition Imagery - Sibley & Page Exhibition Curated by Eggebert-and-Gould Danielle Arnaud Galler y, London2012

“Unknown Artists” Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012

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“Exhibition-Maker”Installation and Imager y Sibley & Page2012

The MerzbauKurt SchwittersFamily House, Germany1923-1937http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.co.uk

MiddayExhibition Imagery - Sibley & PageLydia Gifford David Roberts Art Foundation, London2012

“Gallery 211, (Untitled)”Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012

“Gallery 211”Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012



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“La Châsse du Pape Côtes du Rhône Reserve Red”Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012

“Hans-Ulrich Obrist”Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012

“Personal Curation”Found Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012

“Personal Curation”Found Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012

“Curated Consumption - IKEA”Found Installation and Imager ySibley & Page2012

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To view full list of references and Harvard referenced bibliography for this publication visit www.untitled-sibleyandpage.com/Bibliography

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