JANE PICKERSGILL

Research

We started planning this exhibition in early June, with the research team working on the history of the venue and origins / myth associated with St Pancras - the church whose crypt we are exhibiting inside.

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St Pancras's name in Greek is St Pancratius, meaning literally 'one that holds everything'. This was the favoured title which won the popular vote.

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Curation

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The curation role was so popular that the student group drew straws to be included in that team.  In considering the role however there are major differences between this situation and an exterior, independent artist-curator:

 

1. we are not responsible for the overall management of the exhibition

2. we did not select the venue independently

3. we did not 'open call' or invite artists whose works we felt particularly addressed the theme or site and we knew would complement each other. 

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In January, myself and two MFA peers will be showing our work in an independent venue. I am certain that it will form an interesting contrast with this experience.  We are already finding common factors in our work as it develops and hope to capitalise on this to form a cohesive show under the title 'Sensing Place'.   

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In What They Didn't Teach You at Art School Rosalind Davis (p.109) likens the role of curator to that of a musical composer and says that 'the successful composition is full of different and diverse instruments, sounds, tempo, volume and rhythm'. I found this an interesting metaphor and very apt to arranging the positions of the artworks: the summation of our role. 

 

Team tasks:

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• to set up a chat group with which to organise jobs and meetings between us. 

• post online forms on which the artists could outline their proposal and its technical requirements. Those students who returned forms quickly would be prioritised in their technical requirements/positioning .

• arrange second reconnoitre of the site to establish positioning of electrical sockets for lighting or AV submissions or respond to any technical queries in the received submissions. 

• call out  on our FB group the critical deadline for all proposals to be submitted; to enable the curation team to evaluate proposals. This would also help establish the overall theme which be reinforced in text on press release, leaflets.

• provide constructive feedback to artists where requested and also where the team felt there could be an issue of suitability or propriety in the site. 

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Reflections on installing and curating the work: 

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• this site, in particular 'swallows up' smaller pieces and is particularly 'unsympathetic' to 2D artworks 

• sound pieces without headphones can echo and 'contaminate' other pieces of work so are a major issue 

• the positioning of digital work can also be problematic due to the lack of wiring in parts of the site and too much in one  area which suggested all digital work must go there but this is not advisable  

• the main corridor was particularly difficult for all of the above, there  was a  need to keep sightlines for work  installed at  the end of it, floor-space must not be obstructed for the private view and yet a mix of media is still necessary for variety 

• this specific site had many physical defects and also health and safety issues: uneven floor, damp, dark corners, roof vaults which started quite low down; impacting on positioning of work. More  attention  should  have  been paid  to  assessing  the physical limitations of the site 

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Although some of the above could be said to be the responsibility of the installation team there is no doubt that closer working was necessary for a site such as this, and trust and professionalism are still being established between us as a group of peers.  

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Problems whilst curating:

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• late submission details; despite the curation team's best efforts and reminders a number of artists only gave details of medium, size of artwork etc. a few days prior to the show

• arguments ensued regarding position of some pieces, often focussing on perceived favouritism. It is a good idea to have an uneven number of curators so that a deciding vote can be reached if necessary.

• inevitably the team tried to be generous to the wishes of peers and perhaps did not place items where they thought may be best but where the artist felt they should go. This was a valuable lesson in restricting access  to the site whilst making decisions. 

• not all submissions came with full technical instructions so both curation and installation was delayed by having to telephone the artists for these instructions

• although technically easy to install, the most problematic pieces to site effectively were the 2D works which did not seem so appropriate to the site   

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