SUSAN BRIGHT ARTIST TALK [01/05/20]

'UNLOCKED' talk series no.2

I decided to attend the virtual talk on zoom delivered by curator, and writer Susan Bright. Along with attempting to connect with and interact with as many aspects of the art school as possible in these times, I noticed that she was focussing on discussing her role as curator, and thought this would deem to be highly insightful and engaging with regards to curating our upcoming exhibition.

Throughout the talk, she focussed on discussing her curatational role in the exhibition 'Home Truths' at the Photographers gallery from 11th October 2013, to 5th January 2014.

A home truth can be simply understood as a fact that is somehow discomforting to acknowledge or may cause embarrassment. The work in this show may do all of those things. The title is there to be taken literally, or ironically. The concept of truths in parenting and photography are there to be questioned.  The work in Home Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identity aims to challenge long held stereotypes and sentimental views of motherhood. Set against a backdrop of  the seemingly insatiable appetite for pictures of celebrity mums, streams of Instagram bumps and babies and a history of the Madonna motif in art history, the work hereaddresses changing conditions of power, gender, domesticity, the maternal body and familial relations. It is a critical space for the representation of mothers to exist aside from more reductive cultural assumptions of mothering.

As a theme often overlooked in contemporary art making, the work here is highly subjective, with a sense of seriousness and intense reflection. Much of the work also reflects contemporaneous impulses in photography to photograph everything, however seemingly inappropriate. Home Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identity questions both the identity of the mother figure, but also the identity of photography at a time when the expectations and demands of both are in flux, and both subject and medium grapple for new meaning. The exhibiting artists are Janine Antoni, Elina Brotherus, Elinor Carucci, Ana Casas Broda, Fred Hüning, Leigh Ledare, Katie Murray and Hanna Putz.

It was interesting and engaging to hear about her visual and conceptual reasoning and decisions with regards to the exhibition, and I definitely took a lot away from it with a further insight into this aspect of organising an exhibition.

POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN CURATING : ?????????? needs a reason ???????

-Space - why?

-Lighting - why?

-Size of works - why?

-Means of display (framing, shelf,glass,hanging etc) - why?

-Colours relations, connections - visually - why?

-Conceptual relations, connections - why?

-Video

-Audio

-Multiple rooms, reasoning?