SOME QUOTES FROM PARTICIPANTS

 

I hope today as each of our makers and artists speak, and as we talk and exchange ideas stimulated by that, and by what we ourselves bring to the table, it will be a day of imaginatio, and that the small words, as well as material, space and time, will contribute to larger implications that will allow a different kinds of thoughts and practices.

 

As Dorothy Acule pointed out: thinking in material is a strong creative influence. It enables a dialogue with the imagination, both between the maker and his or her work, and the viewer and the work.

 

[with reference to an exhibition] he was taken by was the transparency of the process, emotional connection to the work and the depth of engagement.  It was focused on the very small detailed things in the work.  It made him know what art can be.  Emotionally profound connection to the work, and the reason why was to do with presentation.  Interpretation in the way in and the work was coherent and beautifully made. 

 

And I realised the thing that's really important to me [in an exhibition] is physical engagement and bodied emotional engagement with work.  And that means that it's context matters, and I am it's context as well as it's physical environment.

 

So I think curatorial editing is important, in a time when people seem to think that you've got to throw everything at it - and actually smaller more discreet shows, where you get more of that emotional  connection and you get more of a sense of the narrative of the show is just as valuable.

 

the drama and the actual presentation [of an exhibition] is very important.  And that the shows are somehow magical, so you can enter into them.  Magical, dramatic, and another exhibition she talked about was gravity and grace which was on at the Haywood.

 

I have got resourcefulness, flexibility, humour, empathy, resilience, tact and sustainability - we saw those as an absolutely essential tool kit for curators…..

 

In a sense we did talk about the role of narrative and communication and how important that is.  And how we keep coming back to stories, stories, stories and Deirdre’s work is concentrated stories in small spaces which ripple out.  And so we talked about the importance of designing pathways of possibility for audiences when they engage in a relationship with space and place.

 

We felt that two really important points were raised actually that got us thinking.  We liked the idea of the space being – I have come up transient in my head – but you described it, you gave it a really beautiful description which was “without edges”. Having a living edge. Yes having living edges and we interpreted that as it has this sense of forward motion, it has a sense of evolution or transient in some way.  Transient sounds a bit fleeting but it allows evolution or journey.

 

I was thinking about my tool kit, or what I take with me.  And of course it's very traditional things like tools, and the main things I normally bring with me, I have a container full of knitting needles and sewing needles.  And normally I try and find materials wherever I am to make the work.  But I was also thinking about in terms of what you need to take with you.  And I put together some things that I think I need to take with me when I do these projects, and I move about a lot and work with a lot of different people.  And I think resourcefulness is one, flexibility.  Humour definitely.  Empathy, working with a lot of different people, I spoke a little bit about this gem here, that's sympathetic holiday, when you're working with people, or making work for people.  Resilience is a major one. Tact, you work with a lot of people in a lot of different communities.  And also I’m very interested in sustainability and trying to come up with projects which actually have a life beyond the project and that are much longer term than one object that sits in the gallery.*

 

the list of skills that Deirdre had described as being relevant to makers is also absolutely relevant to curators as well.[*reference to this quote]

 

On the journey of both thought and physicalizing the thought or allowing a physical action to become a thought they are as much in the creative act as I am even though I might just be more of an outside eye.  With that in mind we wanted to also spread that to the equality of the audience.  If the audience enters into the space as we in our group are talking they have brought mood, they have brought mind, they have brought the day, their culture, their irritation [laughter].  And they have brought all of that into the room so we thought okay let us just keep this – how do we help them.

 

They are talking all the time while moving and it is really difficult to do because of the non-mind body divide.  It is actual proof that the mind and the body does not divide because we make it divide by speaking and acting at the same time and [44:12.1] it is really really difficult and that is already fascinating.