Exhibition Viewing—The dead don’t go until we do
📍Gallery: Talbot Rice Gallery
Link：The dead don’t go until we do
Visit the exhibition “The dead don’t go until we do”. Focusing on the theme that “the departed have not truly left us,” the exhibition uses the artworks of four artists to reawaken memories, community, and intergenerational emotional connections. It not only reimagines history but also collectively highlights the power of family, friends, and community. The exhibition brings together four artists who, drawing from their diverse cultural backgrounds, explore histories that have been forgotten or silenced.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas reconstructs the collective identity of the Romani community through textile collages, using her art to overcome past prejudices against them. She creates her works using old clothing from her family and community, transforming the materials themselves into carriers of communal memory and imbuing them with special emotional significance;
Amol K Patil continues his father’s tradition of social activism and poetry, using sound, poetry, and art installations to narrate the struggles of Mumbai’s marginalized communities amid poverty and hardship. He employs sound as a spatial medium and transforms poetry printed on walls into a spatial experience;
Kang Seung Lee reconstructs forgotten queer history through archival research. The fragmented nature of the information in his artworks emphasizes a sense of void and absence;
MADEYOULOOK’s installation “Mafolofolo” employs a land-art installation based on the ancient earthworks left by the Koni people to respond to the displaced African communities. Through a black environment, wooden topographical structures, and immersive sound, it offers viewers an immersive experience where they are transformed from spectators into participants through a multisensory engagement.
Curating a group exhibition involves not merely selecting artworks, but also constructing a network of relationships among them. The exhibition’s emotional progression moves from family and community to society and historical absence, and finally to the collective and the land. Each gallery is designed to reflect the distinct characteristics of the featured artists’ works, with varying lighting and sound effects that evoke different emotional shifts.
Beyond the profound impression left by the exhibition’s content, their sensory design offers valuable lessons I intend to incorporate into my own curatorial projects: sunglasses provided at the entrance (to accommodate light-sensitive visitors due to varying lighting in different galleries), headphones/earbuds (allowing visitors to adjust the sound environment), fidget toys (to relieve anxiety), sensory kit bags, audio-enabled wall labels, and more. The exhibition actively challenges the default expectations of the body, allowing “listening” to replace “reading.” Rather than requiring visitors to adapt to the exhibition, the exhibition adapts to the visitors, making accessibility an integral part of the curatorial concept rather than an afterthought. Integrating sensory kits into the exhibition means they are not merely supplementary tools but an integral part of the curatorial content. By treating these tools as an extension of the artwork, audiences can independently alter their viewing experience using the items provided in the bag.
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