Curatorial Rationale [500-800]

I will elaborate on my curation in this blog post.
It includes my curatorial themes and curatorial content, basic information about the curation and artists and their works, and my personal critical thinking about the curation.

Curatorial Themes and Curatorial Content

My curatorial theme is about recycled textiles, which is a relatively new topic. Curatorial exhibitions related to textiles are really common, but how to combine it with green technology and recycled ecology is a topic worth exploring, and I will try to develop my thinking and practice in the curatorial exhibition.

My curatorial exhibition will be an offline exhibition. And my initial concept is to design two sets of fashion clothes which are using recycled fabrics and explain the themes of green ecology and environment friendly, and I will also display some recycled textile materials and semi-finished products from the production process. These semi-finished products include plastic raw materials, wafer pellets converted from plastic and preliminary textile fabrics, but how to arrange and design their exhibition is still a topic to be explored. In the fashion design part, I will emphasize on the fabric and the green technology behind it, highlighting the concept of green and recyclability.

Basic Information about the Curation

The curatorial exhibition will be held on April 20 and will last for approximately one day. The venue was originally scheduled to be the 4th floor of the old School of Pharmacy, but the professor told me that that room could not be booked, so I will consider looking for another room, possibly one of the rooms on the ECA campus. The main provider of the curated fabric comes from a relative of mine who has a commercial factory in China, which produces plenty of recycled fabrics and textiles, its fabric products have patented technology and they are sold in worldwide. Artists will use this kind of fabrics to make design. The artists are mainly from two of my classmates at Manchester University who are studying in Fashion Design and Fashion Management, and I think they have their own understanding and creative intent in fashion, so I have enlisted their help. They will help me to design a fashion product in recycled fabric and exhibit it in my curatorial exhibition. The design and production process of the fashion product is still in communication, and I hope they can provide me with a concept drawing and a first draft of the design as soon as possible and I will do my best to provide them with assistance.

Critical Thinking

Sabarinah Sh Ahmad suggested that the proposed Interactive exhibition space is a good solution for the use of technical textiles and can facilitate positive interaction between stakeholders and the community space in his paper The Application of Recycled Textile and Innovative Spatial Design Strategies for a Recycling Centre Exhibition Space. In the paper Bringing the New to the Old: Urban Regeneration through Public Arts, Siti Syamimi Omar suggested that the development of public art, including curatorial and museum forms should be emphasized in urban development. Tekara Shay Stewart and Sara B. Marcketti were focused on Strategies and practices for developing online museums of textile and fashion products, and solutions for online textile museums. In the process of reading these documents, I felt the need to further strengthen the practice of offline exhibitions about textiles, and to contribute to the development of urban construction and community commons through field exhibitions and other forms. In addition, the curatorial activity of recycled textiles and its role in promoting environmental protection and ecological balance still needs more elaboration, and I will add more space to this section in my curatorial practice.

The above is a summary of my curatorial rationale.