Knowledge bank

This overview of Curatorial practice highlights the Tours, Profiles and other resources in this section.

Outside the white-cube

Artworks that defy the more traditional set-up of the white-cube or well-funded institution require a distinct expertise when it comes to installation. As a result, it often comes to be understood as niche praxis. Another way of looking at this is to say that increasingly art has been characterised not so much by medium (eg oil painting or bronze sculpture) than by more and more complex exhibition requirements (such as with performance or digital art). Certain art forms defy the gallery set-up. One of the main reasons specific curatorial organisations exist therefore, is in order to allow diverse types of work to be well shown by catering for their specific presentational needs and promoting the growth of knowledge in this area.

On the one hand, curatorial organisations can facilitate the staging of work in a public space or without some of the physical constraints of the actual gallery building. For example, Longhouse, a West-Midlands-based organisation, focuses on art in the public realm. 'Place Space and Identity' was an extensive Longhouse project between 2007-2008, which saw artists such as Rachel Grant receive awards to build community projects based around the regeneration of Stoke-on-Trent.

Similarly, some of Artangel's most spectacular curatorial feats have been relatively gallery-free such as 'House' (1993) by Rachel Whiteread, Michael Landy's 'Breakdown' (2001) and more recently 'Seizure' (2008) by Roger Hiorns. Artangel continues to operate as an organisation dedicated to offering precisely the artistic happenings that galleries generally can't.

On the other hand, curatorial organisations can create and curate without many of the limitations that come with designing an art experience from within an institution. Of course, working in this way can come with its own set of constraints - not least of which might be the lack of actual exhibition space or funding most associate with the large art institutions. This again means that organisations working in this area provide invaluable help sourcing such essentials - not to mention the long list of other relevant props. For example, one important element in curating is finding or developing the right audience for the work. For Electra, however, this might actually come down to co-opting an existing audience from another field. Their audience-fusion approach has allowed them to successfully merge audiences from art and music events in projects such as 'Perfect Partner' (2005). Likewise, Electra have amassed a large archival resource of information on women working in sound which supports both their own continuing programme, but can also be accessed by the public for further research and curatorial activities.

Independent curatorial practice

Growth of independent curators and curatorial agencies within the UK over the last decade is no accident. Generated in part as a response to inherent constraints within the traditional gallery and museum world and development of specialist curatorial courses, it has undeniably brought fresh perspectives to artist-curator relationships and, increasingly, supports those practitioners seeking to move across into curation as a natural extension of their visual arts practice.

Levels of engagement

Talking about how she works with artists, independent curator Sue Jones says: "I look for artists who take risks with their work and who are continually challenging themselves. I see curating as a form of research, and I take a collaborative approach. Projects often take years to research and I like that pace, it allows interesting things to develop. What I'm passionate about as a curator is working with artists on new works, which are often complex and difficult. I'm a really hands-on curator."

A strategic approach is also taken by General Public Agency's Clare Cumberlidge, who with over twenty years experience has accumulated a range of research methods for locating artists, "GPA rarely develops discrete commissions: The projects and relationships evolve and are fluid - there are a myriad of levels of engagement. It's critical to be working with artists all of the time. We create interdisciplinary teams working with GPA and on particular projects."

Adelaide Bannerman, whose main curatorial interest focuses on highlighting performative gestures and responses in live and visual performance art, echoes these sentiments: "My approach is initially based on personal observations or questions that I might have about their work to initiate exchanges with them. The duration of this encounter varies. If a project develops out of this period, it is usually based around the artist's current areas of interest and research, or through a mutually-agreed approach towards pursuing a particular inquiry."

Rosalind Stoddart, Director of Fermynwoods says: "It's very much about identifying artists who are at an interesting or significant time in their career. "Artists for exhibitions and residency projects may be selected by internal or external curators, from open submissions - she advertises in a-n - as well as from artists' own proposals." She too looks to build collaborations over time, so that development can be nurtured and sustained. Getting the right balance in the curator-artist relationship is crucial.

Independent and self-initiated projects

Emily Druiff points out "When asked to reflect on the term independent curator, it is not so much the term curator that is important but the word independent. The examples that spring to mind are more artist-led groups that choose to boycott the role of curator as the intermediary and instead support a certain network of practices. NODE.London is one such example that choses to bring together practitioners engaged in media art. At the time it was set up in 2005 there was a real lack of representation of these practices, which has now changed. NODE.London was based on the concept of open source cultural production utilising the democratic forum of the wiki and open public meetings to make organisational decisions. It is currently active as an independent network of practitioners and is open to any person or group who wants to help spread media art and related activity around London and beyond."

Sophie Hope remarks "One of the aspects of an independent practice, it seems, is the importance of self-initiating projects and bringing people together to realise and test ideas. This seems to be a trait of some of the practices that come to my mind when I think of independent curating. It is not so much a reactive practice, rather a pro-active way of working. For example, The Blue House in the new suburb, IJburg in Amsterdam, is a project initiated by Jeanne van Heeswijk in 2005 when she negotiated with the developers for a large house to be temporarily taken off the private market and run as a site for research, art production and cultural events. Such initiatives are of course reliant on partnerships and support from other organisations and individuals but Heeswijk also positions the project as a 'self-commissioned artwork-in-progress'. The process is embedded within the changing community whilst allowing for a cacophony of independent practices to occur.

a-n

First published: a-n.co.uk May 2009