Our brief is to curate an exhibition for Travelling Gallery working with the CRC Art Collection to determine and analyse the knowledge production potential of exhibition processes. This is relevant for recently produced artworks with little exhibition histories such as the CRC newly acquired film trilogy Dampbuster (2021), Studwork (2018) and Minutes (2019) by Winnie Herbstein. Travelling Gallery, was selected as a partner for the outreach opportunities it offered to a structure like CRC which, instead, has limited exhibition spaces.
Aware of the historical moment when we are curating this exhibition, and as we recognise the systemic and ongoing housing crisis which continues to impact people, we want to avoid an exhibition that historicises housing. Inspired by Winnie’s films that align multiple temporalities of actions for fairer housing, we envisioned an exhibition capable of drawing from past examples and bringing them into contemporary conversations and actions. To do so, I suggested using the framework of the Living Archive (Sabiescu, 2020). This approach will allow us to use the exhibition to enliven archival materials about past actions for better housing. It will also include a space for visitors’ submissions to contribute their personal housing stories.
Through visitors’ submissions, we hope to avoid falling into simplistic or even patronising tropes when talking about an issue intrinsically bound to systemic class and race inequalities. The living archive submissions allow us to recognise individuals as experts in their own housing experiences and present a complex discussion around housing which we hope will resonate with our diverse audience. This consideration is necessary due to the mobile nature of Travelling Gallery which will bring the exhibition to a new location and very diverse audiences every day.
We also drafted some initial design ideas. We envisioned recreating a home in the first half of the bus that will transform into a building site in the second half. At the rear of the bus, we imagined projecting Winnie’s work referencing the design of her previous exhibitions which screened her films in minimalist industrial settings.
