Dear Beini,
Your curatorial blog documents a reflective and intellectually grounded development process, demonstrating how your curation project matured over time. I was particularly struck by your transition from the broad thematic scope of “Ephemeral Realities” to the more focused and nuanced “Fading Moments: Art in the Flow of Time”. This refinement illustrates your ability to balance conceptual depth with curatorial clarity—an essential skill for emerging practitioners.

As for the themes, your project investigates themes of impermanence, memory, and the dissolution of material and digital realities. Although our curatorial focuses diverge—mine engages with the suppression of women’s voices in patriarchal family structures, while yours explores temporal instability—we both utilize sensory experience and affect as curatorial strategies. In “Echoes of Silence”, I employ immersive soundscapes to centre silenced narratives; your work, in turn, creates a conceptual space where time itself becomes fragile and elusive.

Further, your consistent engagement with practical curatorial concerns is especially commendable. Because you thoughtfully addressed constraints such as artist selection, scale, budget, and venue adaptability. This also mirrors my own experience negotiating between conceptual intent and spatial or financial limitations, particularly when working with sound-based installations in small-scale environments. Plus, your willingness to adapt your plans—streamlining the number of artists and refining spatial choices—reflects growing curatorial maturity.

Your critical application of curatorial theory also strengthens your methodology. I found your analysis of Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas’s collaborative, DIY practice particularly compelling. Their rejection of institutional conventions in favour of direct audience engagement parallels many aspects of your own project. Their example also encouraged me to reflect on how participatory strategies—such as oral history or public audio contributions—could further enrich my own exhibition.

In addition, your review of ATLAS Arts’ hybrid and multi-sited exhibition model added another compelling layer to your practice. While I explore the aesthetics of impermanence through sound and digital dissolution, your analysis of online accessibility and longevity expanded my thinking around curatorial sustainability and audience engagement across time and space.

To support the continued evolution of your exhibition, I would like to pose a few questions:

1. Have you identified your primary audiences? How might their emotional or temporal engagement shift across in your three curatorial sections?
2. Since your theme centres on transience, would a temporal progression in the exhibition’s structure—such as works changing or disappearing—better reflect the concept?
3. Have you considered how accessibility and inclusivity (EDI) will be addressed, particularly for audiences who may have experienced trauma, marginalisation, or cultural displacement?

In conclusion, your blog articulates a well-researched, reflective, and practically aware curatorial voice. I argue that you successfully balance theoretical insight with a deepening understanding of the logistical challenges of exhibition-making. Your writing also encouraged me to evaluate the intersections between conceptual frameworks, public engagement, and curatorial ethics in my own practice.

References

Bilbao, A. (2018) ‘Micro-Curating: The Role of SVAOs (Small Visual Arts Organisations) in the History of Exhibition-Making’, Notebook for Art, Theory and Related Zones, 25, pp. 118–138.
Bishop, C. (2012) Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso.
Kolb, R., Regli, C. and Richter, D. (eds) (2019) ‘Centres/Peripheries – Complex Constellations’, OnCurating, 41. Available at: https://www.on-curating.org/issue-41.html (Accessed: 23 March 2025).
O’Neill, P. (2012) The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Oliveros, P. (2005) Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.
Steyerl, H. (2013) ‘Too Much World: Is the Internet Dead?’, e-flux Journal, 49 (November). Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/49/60004/too-much-world-is-the-internet-dead/ (Accessed: 23 March 2025).
Walby, S. (1990) Theorizing Patriarchy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

My Peer Review of Beini Cai / Jiamin Zhu / Curating (2024-2025)[SEM2] by is licensed under a