A Beautiful Hesitation & Panel Discussion: Exhibiting Art
Last year I went to see Fiona Pardington's 'A Beautiful Hesitation' show at the City Gallery in Wellington. I wrote then about how frustrated I was with the lighting and the layout of the show and was interested to see it in Auckland to find out whether any of those issues had changed. It seems like I wasn't the only one to have problems with the lighting on the glass of the large, dark images, as Auckland Art Gallery has presented them in a darker room with much more subdued and less directional lighting. The difference in experience is phenomenal! The layout of the works also seemed more cohesive and natural with similar works and time-periods grouped together with some rather nice salon hangs where appropriate. Overall Auckland Art Gallery improved on the display of the works considerably, they also had the accompanying book which wasn't yet available in Wellington.Anita and I went along to the panel discussion with Natasha Conland, Christina Barton, Misal Adnan Yıldız and Allan Smith on the exhibiting of contemporary art (with quite a bit of emphasis on the current Necessary Distraction show). I enjoyed hearing their perspectives and experiences creating exhibitions of contemporary painting. A few points that particularly interested me:
- Christina brought up the questions around curators producing exhibition strategies that stand as artworks in their own right (she brought this up in relation to the Necessary Distraction show curated by Natasha that utilises unfinished walls and exposed construction). How does that impact on the work? What does the exhibition become?
- In discussing what makes painting 'contemporary' Adnan talked about painting needing to have an understanding of installation practice. Painting can no longer assume the position of being self-contained within it's frame, unaffected and not interacting with the space around it.
- Anita and I noticed that each curator placed different values on art's duty and seemed to curate accordingly.