Continuing from my focus on curatorial theme I have now been able to locate possible artists that I believe would contribute unique viewpoints to an exhibition space. Below I have mapped out these artists, including their name, key terms, a photo of their work, and a brief description of their practice. From this I was able to start linking pieces of work together to find areas of harmony and friction. Additionally, from this stance, informed by my own curatorial theoretical research, and the practices of the researched artists, I can begin constructing a preliminary narrative that may constitute the flow of the exhibition.

Structure:

Past:

The first three artists in my mind map all draw inspiration from the past at varying levels.

1. Ilana Halperin: through her own intervention, links the past of the material and the present of her inaction upon it. Her practice focuses around connecting human experience with hard to comprehend forces of geology through the immediacy of materials.
2. Charlotte Alexander: tells her own stories through individual narrative, constructed with the careful arrangement of personal, archival artefacts. Simultaneously she presents the nostalgic role of nature in childhood memory, whilst also directing us to appraise the associated personal loss that accompanies a climate crisis. This is an especially interesting, and non-typical ecological artwork as it asks us to question planetary dysphoria from a perspective of personal, and perhaps sentimental loss.
3. Sian Landau: explores sonic work exploring the narratives held in the physical landscape. This engages with Halperin’s concept of the trace fossil, stating that the land holds a history through the traces of actions, both human and non-human. The audio quality also lends the space to be more immersive, and the exhibition more accessible to visually impaired audiences.

Future:

Timothy Morton states that we are at a climate tipping point (2018), so when artists imagine the future there is the possibility to tip either way. Emerging in this section are contrasting themes of grief and hope.

1. Molly Wickett: imagining a post-apocalyptic future, and the possibility of fungal life beyond the Anthropocene. Wickett approaches this from the perspective of a disabled, queer, and feminist understanding of space and time.
2. Oskar Jones: musical pieces imagining a future where humans and nature are treated as equal collaborators in the formation of the world.
3. Jade de Montserrat: though not typically focusing on ecological themes, she has worked as part of nature-based workshops with Nottingham’s New Art Exchange space. Her focus on de colonising perspectives and paying attention to the bodies that get institutionally ignored would make her an excellent candidate for challenging the established notion associated with how we perceive the Anthropocene, and who gets overlooked in the generalisation of the ‘age of humanity’.
4. Sohorab Rabbery – has made work concentrating on speculative projects focusing on South Asian river ways, and how this relates to political governments. The acknowledgement of the legislative colonial impositions on land is also important as I can offer shape to the forms of action that audiences may respond to the exhibition with.

As worked on in my blog post about thematic development, I have purposefully incorporated works that approach an ecological future in different ways, drawing upon a wealth of different cultural perspectives. The aim in showcasing this work is to lead an audience to contemplate the sort of future they want to be a part of.

Present:

This follows on directly from the Future. After leading an audience to imagine the shape of future they wish to see I think it is important to locate the viewer in the present and present the world as transmutable to our actions. This section focuses on the actions of the present, and the ways that we can be exist while being cognisant of the past and the future within our actions.

1. Romy Antrobus: does not make work about ecology, instead using non-traditional dark room photography, using water and light to explore Karan Barad’s concept of space-time-mattering. The random chance of intermingling elements produces unpredictable results, every event is a result of infinite previous happenings and effects the future in turn. This forms part of the resolve to the exhibition narrative, turning attention to the actions of humans and non-humans in shaping the present, with even the small acts having an effect on the future in unperceivable ways.
2. Catrina Lucas: this work takes on a more personal narrative, using the imagery of the limpet shell as a symbol for finding a sense of home and belonging in a changing landscape. Within the exhibition narrative it can direct an audience to the ways that they can embrace change, and when combined with the anti-colonialism statements made previously, the viewer can be challenged to embrace change and overturn entrenched hegemonies.
3. Fiona Goss: practice consists of developing objects with a palpable sense of care and intentionality. This connects with Robin Kimmerer’s philosophies on caring for the world and finding beauty within a damaged planet. This combined with the elevation of natural material to the status of art emphasises the importance of restorative action.
4. Coral Shaw Jackson: views the landscape as being something in a state of becoming. The land is a cultural practice to be treated as a verb rather than a noun. I find that this also connects with indigenous wisdom. Kimmerer discusses how in indigenous languages the land is referred to with active language, which reflects the agency of non-human persons. Jane Bennet also suggests that when we recognise that the land is active in shaping itself and the world then we may be able to overturn the dominant viewpoint that establishes the human as the only entity with acting agency, and therefore able to express domination on the non-human world.
5. Dylan McLaughlin: brings attention to the political practices that express harmful remnants of colonialism, whilst bringing attention to indigenous cosmologies and ecologies of extraction, and current political harm.

Through this combination of artists, as well as thematic enquiry a curatorial aim can be identified:

To make an audience aware of their own place within ecological time, and activate them to their own capabilities to work with nature to create the future.

Action:

Having an idea of general structure, and thematic grouping of artists, I can begin to understand the requirements of an exhibition space. Looking practically, I know that due to the combination of two and three dimensional work, I will require an open space,  so as to not impede the artist work with unnecessary constraints e.g. with wall space that offers itself to hanging (though temporary walls could be erected if necessary).  Ideally the location would lend itself to creating 3 distinct spaces, however due to the ambition to have a linear narrative, I will have to make sure that the audience is guided out of the exhibition without having to retrace their steps.

Artist Identification / Harry Mayston / Curating (2024-2025)[SEM2] by is licensed under a