Curated by Kejing Sun.
Kejing Sun is a student studying toward an MA degree in Contemporary Art Theory at Edinburgh College of Art. She completed her BA in English and Communication Studies, so she’s learning and exploring the connection between literature, memory studies, museology, film studies, anthropology, and contemporary art. Kejing would like to find approaches to present these connections in curatorial practices.
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic, like no other pandemics in history, has been striking the global societies and communities in waves. Two waves of pandemics have had a huge impact on British cities in 2020 and 2021. In the past two years, many exhibitions and activities on the subject of COVID-19 were curated and held. In the first half of the year 2022, people now possess an increased understanding of the Corona Virus and more experiences of how to co-exist with the pandemic. In this context, this curatorial project, which includes an exhibition, a workshop, and a seminar, has collected works and objects composed recently from the art societies and local communities in and around Edinburgh to have them staged in juxtaposition with some works and practices made in the previous years.
Works and practices to be exhibited in this project include but are not limited to the sketches, drawings, photographs, and installations contributed by local art school students and residents, and the artworks and documentaries contributed by artists around the globe.
Aims and Objectives
Aims:
By choosing a local site to exhibit the works composed recently by local artists and residents in juxtaposition with the works composed in previous years and in different socio-cultural contexts, this exhibition aims to promote the local art lovers and citizens to revisit their pandemic experiences and pandemic life. They are encouraged to reflect on their understandings of the waves of the pandemic and their reactions to it, as well as to relive the memory and the emotions embodied by the artworks and practices to reconsider how human beings should co-exist with COVID-19 in the future. However, though this project has gathered and presented contemporary artworks and practices for the participants to reflect on and contemplate, the project and the curator do not attempt to demonstrate any pre-set conclusions or certain ideologies. Rather than providing implications or fixed conclusions for the participants, the project raises open-ended questions to prompt the visitors to look for their own answers and creates an artistic environment for them to find an opportunity for consolations, resonances, and inspirations.
This exhibition will employ an anthropological perspective, which believes that the sociocultural context of art can and should be presented along with the art objects. Therefore, the context in which the objects were composed and the process of the artistic production will be described and narrated alongside the exhibited objects (the narrations will be provided by the contributors). By presenting objects created in different times and diverse sociocultural contexts in one space, the project suggests the participants to observe how people’s changing understandings and experiences across different times and different communities are represented and embodied in the art objects. The comparative observation and the demonstration of the sociocultural contexts will invite the participants to apply an anthropological perspective of ‘art objects – effects’ in addition to a semiotic perspective of ‘symbols -meanings.’
Objectives:
- To create a local art event for the communities in and around the city of Edinburgh to revisit the experience and life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To provide a space for visitors of this project to interact with and contemplate the artworks and practices presented in the exhibition; to run an educational workshop for teenagers and kids to learn more about the past lockdowns and knowledge about the coronavirus; to organize a seminar for artists to discuss the influence of pandemic to their artistic practices and life as an artist.
- To construct an artistic space for the visitors to find an opportunity for consolations, resonances, and inspirations; to create an environment for people to identify with other people’s experiences and emotions and to articulate their own voices and comments.
- To suggest the visitors take an anthropological perspective when interpreting and observing the artistic objects; to forge conversations, interactions, and critical reflections rather than still observations in the space.
Space Design and Event Design
Space:
The art objects, including drawings, sketches, sculptures, installations, signs & banners, documentaries, and artistic texts, will be presented in chronological order according to their dates of completion. Meanwhile, the objects created by local and foreign artists/residents will be exhibited in juxtaposition to avoid a sense of cultural division and deliberate comparison. The workshop and the seminar will be held at the center of the exhibition space, which is available to all visitors.
Seminar:
Conversations and interviews were held between the curator and the invited artists. The invited artists include:
Josiah Lamb. Artist, reader of early modern culture. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Now completing her degree in London, United Kingdom.
Yiru Chen. Filmmaker, poet, teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing. Born in Shanghai, China. Now lives and works in New York City.
And more…
Workshop:
For more details, please visit: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/macat2022/the-projects/education/coronavirus-workshop/
Location
Trial Run: Studio 1.16 Space 02 at ECA Fire Station (the building opposite Novotel, in the south corner of Edinburgh College of Art).
Formal Location: Studio space at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, 21 Hawthornvale, Edinburgh, EH6 4JT (https://edinburghsculpture.org/research/studios/)
Date / Duration
1 Day of trial run, on 29th April
3 days of exhibition, with 1 educational workshop on the second day and 1 seminar on the last day. From 10th July 2022 – 12th July 2022.
Other Notices
This project is part of the MA Contemporary Art Theory ‘Curating’ Programme named ‘Constellation’. The project can be regarded as a pedagogical and experimental practice. The project does not intend to achieve commercial success. The exhibition, seminar, and workshop are free to all. No need for registration, just pop up during the event hours. A website embedded in the curator’s WordPress blog is created for contribution-calling, discussion, and archiving purposes. All participants and all art lovers who are interested in the project are welcome to post their thoughts and feedback on the project.
