Week7#Seminar with Beth 02

Part I: Short Talk on Case Studies

We started the session with a review of each of our chosen themes and project art areas, while Beth gave us a few valuable case studies, one from Glasgow University and one from Bard College, as well as some of the projects she has worked on: a series of projects I have worked on, including The Pipe Factory Least Event Glasgow International Academy, House of Commons, Arts Across Learning Festival, Siena College of Art, Dear Green ZKU Berlin, Temporary Art School and Glasgow Open Day.

In this process, I understood that as a curator, I need to have comprehensive and three-dimensional control of my exhibition, just like this diagram, we first need to clarify the arrangement of the physical space of our exhibition and then allocate the position of the artworks according to the tone of the exhibition.

Whether it is an exhibition in an art gallery or museum, a workshop, or performance art, there needs to be a sense of ‘advance’ and timetable planning to ensure that the project runs smoothly and on schedule.

Part II: Collective Considerations: Thematics, Design – New division of labor

We then went through two groupings, the first where beth grouped our curators with similar or identical themes to discuss the similarities, differences, possibilities, and potential between our projects curatorially, conceptually and practically.

In this process, I worked with Borui Zhang on the theme of people and relationships, she chose the theme of first love between people and my theme was about ‘people and the environment’, and we tried to do our content in the same venue, for example by building a digital media space in the eca that both parties could use at the same time, rotating it, and to some extent linking the exhibitions.

We were broken out into groups relating to skills and roles we would play in the collective effort of delivering the project as a year group. Looked at the draft template, roles and areas laid out on the tables but adapt and amend them as a group as needed. We toward the table where we thought our skillset lies. Once seated, we were given one min short intro to our skills/experience and then discuss as a group how we were going to plan and work together. Reported back to the whole cohort.

In this section, I shared with the group a couple of elements from the reading material I had previewed before the class. The first was the artist film of GOHAF 2021: Isolated Artists, which I saw as an avant-garde performance art performance with a pioneering twist, where they present an artistic environment different from their surroundings through dressing up, posters, and performance to create a specific artistic atmosphere, making me realise that art can happen anywhere.

This is followed by an exploration of Elsewhere, a living museum, international artist residency and collaborative learning laboratory built from Jewish businesswoman Sylvia Gray’s three-story thrift shop in Greensboro, North Carolina, and its 58-year collection of material culture and remnants. Elsewhere is an anti-racist space and organisation. Their mission is to support site-specific experimentation, social action and interdisciplinary collaboration to foster new ways of thinking and acting, to explore context and place in art making, and the integration of creativity and life.

I read some of the art exhibitions they have held. I think each theme is very independent and very thought-provoking. I think this should be the meaning of art. At the same time, they have a project that moved me very much. It is called the Pet Memorial Hall, which records the stories between each pet owner and their pets. I think it is the most beautiful expression in art to record the relationship between people and people, and between people and things through the carrier of art.

We also explored the relevant webpages about the Edinburgh Art Festival. On this webpage, we can clearly see a series of online and offline event resources related to the Edinburgh Art Festival, as well as cooperation with different communities, joint activities with galleries, etc. etc., including some performance art workshops, I think this website integrates art and urban life very well.