Conversations
I want to talk to you about curators, or perhaps about conversations. Who are the people that you have creative dialogue with in the course of creating an artwork?
When putting together my application for the bursary it dawned upon me that most of my projects have been developed without curatorial input. This is one of the reasons why I want to meet and speak to curators about my work. What do they think of it? How would they conceptualise or contextualise it? Recent projects have, for example, been commissioned by a literature festival or a country house (via a borough council). Within such projects there is often a project manager who can be helpful at talking through work, but more likely on a practical level of getting the work done. Sometimes I have found the attitude of “you are the artist, it’s up to you” when trying to converse about creative or conceptual decisions. In some sense this is nice, but it would also be nice to have more in depth conversations about the artwork and whether/how it is successful or what alternative approaches might be.
In artist led projects or gallery spaces there can sometimes be scope for more discussion (and people with the knowledge and experience willing to have it) but often there isn’t a ‘curator’ as such. I have been on the other side of the equation as a gallery manager or project manager and so understand the pressures on people’s time and resources in terms of making projects happen. If there isn’t a defined role, or recognition of the need to support critical discussion with artists, does it risk falling by the wayside?
I’d be interested in hearing about other artists’ thoughts and experiences here. How have you worked with curators either in one-off situations or with longer term dialogues? At the moment most of the ‘support’ I receive is from other artists who are friends or colleagues in my area, or from friends who are just good listeners. This is really valuable, so how important is it to have conversations with other people with more distance from you and your work?
