This week, I’ve made significant progress on the direction of my curatorial project, which now takes the working title A System of Her Own. The exhibition will no longer focus on multiple artists rejecting the art world, but instead centre around a solo project that embodies quiet resistance and alternative systems of making and showing.
I’ve been researching potential venues that align with my curatorial concept, and I came across Custom Lane in Leith. It’s a creative hub that supports design-led and research-driven projects, and it seems to welcome alternative exhibition formats.https://customlane.co/hire-our-space
What appeals to me is that Custom Lane could work as a hybrid space—not only for showing artworks but also as a platform for curatorial publishing, like hosting a zine launch. This would allow me to combine a small-scale public exhibition with a publication element, which aligns with my project’s anti-commercial and anti-institutional themes.
The weekly rental cost is £1,200, so I’m planning a one-week exhibition. This limited timeframe reinforces the project’s emphasis on ephemerality, autonomy, and self-determined visibility.
At this stage, I am particularly drawn to two artists: Tanatsei Gambura and Holly White. Both challenge dominant structures through poetic, philosophical, or DIY practices.
Tanatsei Gambura is a poet, curator and researcher whose practice focuses on epistemic decolonisation, African feminist thought, and embodied knowledge. Her work often takes the form of spoken word, text-based installations, or ritualistic encounters that challenge Eurocentric logic systems. She reclaims “knowledge” as a living, intuitive, poetic process rather than something fixed or institutional.
Holly White, on the other hand, works with zines, found objects, 3D printing, and virtual spaces. Her aesthetics are rooted in DIY culture and post-internet art, and her practice often critiques cultural nostalgia, consumption, and mainstream systems of production. Her self-published zines exemplify a grassroots approach to publishing as resistance.
This week has helped me shift from a thematic group show toward a more intentional, format-conscious curatorial proposition.
References
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. London: Hogarth Press, 1929.
White, Holly. “About.” Holly White, 2023. https://holly-white.com/about
Custom Lane. “Hire Our Space.” Custom Lane, 2024. https://customlane.co/hire-our-space
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