A Discussion Starting from The Children Are Now Exhibition
Introduction
This week, I visited the exhibition “The Children Are Now” at the Talbot Rice Gallery. The exhibition focuses on the theme of children’s rights, addressing the impact of the education system, institutional environments, and power structures on children’s growth. However, one of the video works prompted me to further contemplate the issue of “scale” in curatorial practice, particularly under the premise that exhibitions aim for public accessibility and inclusivity. It raises the question of how curators should confront potential ethical risks.
The same work, viewed from different positions
Is reproduction equivalent to critique?
Although the work’s intention is to reveal issues, the act of representation itself does not necessarily imply critique. For audiences with sufficient cultural background and critical awareness, this imagery may be understood as an exposure of linguistic violence; yet for other viewers, it could also be perceived as an unexplained repetition
When Children Become the Audience
When children enter the exhibition space as viewers, this risk becomes particularly evident. Children often lack sufficient contextual judgement skills, making them more likely to perceive the content in the exhibition as “language that can be learnt” rather than issues that require reflection.
The issue of “scale” in curation
Therefore, the issue of scale in curation is not merely about whether violent or sexual content is suitable for viewing by young children, but also involves how language, power, and ideology are presented in public spaces. Are works containing discriminatory or offensive expressions appropriate for display in public art museums? Who should define these boundaries—artists, curators, or exhibition institutions?
Call to Action
When artworks aim for public engagement, should curators bear a higher ethical responsibility toward all potential audiences? This question merits ongoing discussion.
Conclusion
Curators not only requires responsibility towards the works themselves but also necessitate an awareness of the public stance represented by the exhibition platform. When potentially harmful language is presented in an exhibition, and some audiences are unable to distinguish between representation and critique, the resulting “soft consequences” should not be overlooked. The ethical dimensions of curation precisely become an unavoidable issue within such complex and unequal viewing structures.
Hi Luosijie, good to look at your Blog so far. Overall, there is some interesting reflection on course ideas, SICP content, and some reference to course resources. But more research content is needed and/or examples of curatorial practice fully communicate and support the points you make. Use strong direct quotes also where you can, and show where they come from.
It is important to have streamlined use of formatting/structuring headings, and to create narrative flow and critical connections between points/subheadings, and between separate posts.
Use short effective headline/titles for Blog posts that communicate your key content, W1 for example is too long. Cut all sections ‘Call to duty’, they are not relevant and repetitive
You don’t need Introduction or Conclusion (which repeats content, avoid this without adding any new idea/synthesis/research) in such short posts, but do use subheadings to help editorialise your content. Currently, you have too many in your posts! The content from Thea in the Introduction is however quite good, but explain more clearly how you use the idea of ‘traditional art’ because it is not clear what you mean when you say “rather than simply updating traditional art forms”: Thea uses this idea to express traditional mediums such as painting, sculpture: adding follow on research about this idea and direct quotes can help eg Dorothea von Hantelmann How to Do Things with Art (2010). This would clarify the way you want to revisit a Chinese art medium through the more contemporary lens of questions of time and labour. Give examples of exhibitions with this method of the contemporary-historical to show independent research. Draw on texts on art, medium and technology, critical thinking and quotes on installation. Weave back in content from later weeks (Week 2 lecture talked about the shift to curating as experience, Art and attitudes).
The Week 2 post needs a lot of revision: where does the quote “bridge between tradition and contemporaneity” come from? You don’t establish the framework for the post, ie. Terry Smith’s idea of contemporaneity. There is some potentially interesting independent research on Tunyard and modernism, etc but it’s really not clear what you are trying to say: how does this relate to your idea of reframing lacquer painting? How does British neo-romanticism and the Anthropocene come in. It feels like ingredients that need a recipe.
You use quotes again in Week 3 with no source, avoid this. You discuss ethics in relation to the TRG exhibition, but with no mention of the Week 3 lecture. You also don’t address James’ workshop (the curator of Children Now). It’s not clear how this fieldwork related to your own SICP: it is important to create narrative flow and critical connections between points/subheadings, and between separate posts. The Conclusion is vague: use all words to show you are addressing the learning outcomes.
A key gap: you need to reference the Collective in your Blog, I know Week 1, and maybe 2, things were warming up, but definitely by Week 3 there is movement to discuss.
There is scope for more images: consider image size and the use of various types of figures, you have a 400 approx word limit, but can use images strategically to add visual communication.