Tracey Emin says the process of curating isn’t just about what looks good with this or that. There must be ‘an ethos – a theory – behind it; something you want to change. For Emin, it’s about finding a way to alter peoples’ perceptions of looking at something, to get them to see it in a new way. The example she gives involves her curation of Egon Schiele’s work where her strategy was to avoid the usual approaches by limiting colour and density in favour of making the work feel light; ‘to raise his work up’.
In many ways, this perhaps is a subtle shift in approach to curating but somehow it helps; it gives a clue towards unravelling the mysteries of delivering a good exhibition.
Source: Ben Harding & Richard Bright, ‘What do artists do all day? Tracey Emin’, BBC Scotland Arts Production, 2015
