Week 5 Collective Project Development
⏳Progress on the Collective Project
This week, our collective decided to develop a curatorial project in the form of a solo exhibition. As all of our group members are Chinese, we chose to work with San Zhang, a Chinese artist who is practising in Scotland. Her artwork features a wealth of elements from Chinese culture. This decision felt meaningful, as it followed one of our collective manifesto——supporting young Chinese artists based in Scotland. Also, it allows us to reflect our own position as Chinese curators working within a Scottish context and thinking through questions of cultural translation, identity, and representation.
(San Zhang, artist profile. Screenshot from ECA Graduate Showcase)
We further discussed about visitor circulation. As we are considering dividing the exhibition into three sections, we talked about encouraging the audience to move through the space in a 1-2-3 sequence. This conversation also made me reflect on my own curatorial project. Since I want visitors to move in a circular way, I began to think more carefully about whether circulation needs to be explicitly guided. At first, I considered adding signs on the walls or floor, but later I felt this might be unnecessary. If the spatial structure already suggests circular movement, visitors may be able to explore the exhibition more freely without following a fixed route.
(Installation view of works by San Zhang. Source: ECA Graduate Showcase)
💡Choosing Artworks
We have taken measurements of In Vitro Gallery. As there are two fixed exhibition walls in the centre, the gallery is naturally unsuitable for large-scale installations. We have therefore decided to select approximately six to eight works by the artist San Zhang, according to the space limitations.
Castrator
Mixed fabrics and glazed stoneware. 150x90x50cm
Hill town, Hell city
Oil and acrylic on canvas. 145x80cm
The Dreameater
Oil and acrylic on canvas. 100x100cm
Shelly’s Head
Needle felt. 30x40x25cm
The Tower of Desire
Glazed stoneware and needle felt
Undercover Angel
Felt, fleece, beads and faux lichen. 50x60x25cm
Hell Is Bugging Me
Performance with sound by Pete McConville (@pete_illiop)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANodQ2BvHSk/
Reference
https://www.graduateshow.eca.ed.ac.uk/portfolio/san-zhang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANodQ2BvHSk/
