Cali Anthropology Girl: interpretation

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Matthew Darbyshire 'Oak Effect' with TWAM anthropology collections

This weekend I had to chance to stop by an exhibition in the Bloomberg SPACE that I have been trying to get to for ages. The exhibition is presented by British contemporary artist Matthew Darbyshire, but includes social history and anthropology collections from the Tyne and Wear Archive and Museum service. Months ago I helped gather the anthropology collections to accommodate the artist’s main criteria – that he had similar ethnographic objects made of wood with examples from all the continents.

Unfortunately, that is a rather tight criterion for our limited anthropology collections, but that didn’t mean the exhibition demand didn’t take up a good part of my time for quite a while. I had blogged previously about the need for correct loan valuations of these important objects (here). Part of the loan requirements demanded the individual objects being loaned had the appropriate contextual labels so that even though they were being shown out of their ethnographic context, the audience looking at the exhibition could still understand something deeper than an artistic interpretation of the objects.

Baule carving of a queen, Fred Uhlman collection...In a shower!

I expected to show up and see the familiar faces of our objects interpreted in an artistic context ‘exploring a contemporary world of collisions between objects, ephemera, styles and epochs’. I found the faux EU standard housing interior I expected with the objects unsettlingly dispersed throughout the exhibition, but with the added surprise of two ladies dressed up in vinyl wood patterned suits doing performance art in the room.

I think they were mock acting out daily activities you would do at home just in extreme slow motion. I really wasn’t sure though. I think the value that performance art adds to installations such as the Darbyshire installation is interesting, but in all honesty I really didn’t get it. It was really funny though. There was a kid at the show who I believe agreed with me and went out of his way to follow the wood girls around and try to interact with them. It definitely made the room feel a lot more comfortable.

Kid trying to get wood girls' attention

The show ends at the Bloomberg SPACE on June 29, but will be coming up to The Shipley Gallery after that.

Wood girls taking a break

Monday, 17 June 2013

CAG on museums: Putting up the 'Material Connections' display

Iberian female votive figure 5th century BC

The ‘Material Connections: Spanish and Portuguese decorative arts’ is officially up and running. Having such a short lead-in time, it has been an enormous task to get everything ready and up to standard. Some of the biggest hurdles for curatorial work I think happen to be whether or not the aspects of the exhibition which you need to outsource (printing, conservation, design, etc.) can be done with the same expediency that you have to get your exhibition out in. This is when I learned that doing as much as I could possibly do on my own like photography, interpretation, install, mount making, and (some of) the design would make the process move much faster than usual.

19th century pistol holders to go over the pommel of a horse

Making plastizote cut outs for the pistol holders

Packing objects for transport

Although it has been a whirlwind of a job, curating, researching, and installing an exhibition is one of the most fulfilling things about curatorial work. There are a lot of other aspects of the curator position that aren’t really my favourite things, but you’re always reminded that you do those slightly trivial tasks so that when you get to do the exhibition work it gives you so much satisfaction.