03 Changeable curatorial mode

This week’s lecture discusses how contemporary curatorial platforms can transcend the limitations of traditional exhibition Spaces to reflect their functional diversity and political tension through several examples. What impressed me most was proppaNOW, an organization composed of Australian Aborigine, in which Gordon Hookey’s work touched me very much. This flag with yellow heart is not only a symbolic re-creation, but also a strategy to reshape “radical” through vision. It retains the political nature of the Aboriginal flag while adding the personal emotions of the artist. From this, I realized that the curator organization is not a passive space container, but also a platform for curators to share their own values.

Another case that struck me is SVAOs. This small-scale, localized and participatory curatorial mode reminds me of a community project I participated in when I was an undergraduate. The main content is that our students cooperate with local businesses and neighbors in the community to plan exhibition activities that can show community culture. At the same time, this flexible curatorial mode also gave me a preliminary idea for the curation of the final assignment, even if I did not choose a specific theme: I think my personal curatorial project should be an open, multi-party co-creation place where problems can be accommodated and discussed, rather than a platform for my unilateral output of conclusions.

References：

Bilbao Yarto, Ana Edurne. “SVAOs: Micro-Curating and the Urban.” On Curating 37 (2018).
https://www.on-curating.org/issue-37-reader/svaos-micro-curating-and-the-urban.html.

proppaNOW Collective. Gordon Hookey & Richard Bell. “Not My King” and “In Solidarity.” The Guardian, October 22, 2022.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/oct/22/brisbane-based-indigenous-art-collective-proppanow-wins-prestigious-global-prize.