The theme of Talbot rice Gallery- “The Accursed Share”
It is significant to find the common point of collaboration of artworks and to help the audiences understand the main concept in the first instance. The promotion of the booklet showed the map in the first few pages to guide the audiences, and the descriptions of the theories and practices behind the artist’s work which both understand texts and images.
Critical reflection on gallery visit, how to improve more about my curatorial project?
The concept shaping behind the artists is sharable and identical as an exhibition entails cultural, social, economic, and political values, and uses creative material methods to present their works connecting together. “The Accursed Share” is a theory book written by French philosopher Georges Bataille, the term ‘general economy’ stated by Nietzsche’s initial idea, was expanded by Bataille. General economy proposes the notion of waste as a presentation of expenditure economic behaviors in pre-industrial and pre-capitalist societies. Bataille claims that “the increasing trend of human political arrangements is to seek the useful, or productive, investment of all wealth.” (Moses, 2022) The productive expenditure can never reach efficiency perfectly and satisfactorily, on the other hand, non-productive expenditure must occur in various forms. Therefore, the concept of ‘general economy’ is exploring the theories of non-productive expenditure related to an unacknowledged field of study.
‘The Accursed Share‘ artworks share with thought about ‘non-productive expenditure’, in other words, non-productive expenditure extended “beyond the boundaries of monetary exchange, markets, and modern capitalism.” (Moses, 2022) The sharing of things as an exclusion of colonization, evictions, enslavement, extraction, and militarization, how we seek them, explore them, and reflect them.
(Naming the money,2004)
Artist Lubaina Himid, she used mixed media, paper, paint, and wood to present her ideas that she depicted enslaved Africans’ intricate historical stories through her hand-painted. As she bestowed each of them an identical name and a short haiku-like poem on the back of the wood painting. Also, the signs on the back are considered as their lives of being and what they have become with a generic name. 
(Haiku-like poem and generic name)
Himid thought its strength lies in its ability to connect people who are ripped from one life to another. To give my opinion, this strength is connected to a portion of non-productive expenditure in one form of artwork. The inclusion of world music is connecting productions through the general economy. Furthermore, the folk musical instruments presented in her paintings as part of a soundtrack to communicate with migrant cultures. Himid applied to wood and paper as her main mediums seem to express part of decolonized nationalism.
(Untitled, 2018)
The material copper as the main symbol represented extraction itself within free trade. A dark history is connected with copper shell casings which indicate objectification of the labor force. The collection of plants implies an obsession with power from Europeans. Thurs, the reconnection of productive expenditure to produce more wealth as concerned as insatiable productivity creations of capitalism. Bataille claims that “if the system can no longer grow, or if the excess cannot be completely absorbed in its growth, it must necessarily be lost without profit; it must be spent, willingly or not, gloriously or catastrophically” (Moses, 2022) Therefore, we need a theory of ‘general economy’, to understand itself becoming crucial and vital.
To sum up, it is uneasy to understand and see the exterior form of the artwork itself from the inside of theories to the outside of practices is critical as the role of the artist. Moreover, the main theme of the collaboration of nine artists plays a vital role to work as a curator and think as a curator. The artworks are runs into different forms with opposition spaces, and the interior system of working with them is reflected in curating.
References:
https://www.thecollector.com/georges-bataille-accursed-share-economics/
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