"You Talking to Me?"

Reflection on “You Talking to Me? On Curating Group Shows that Give you a Chance to Join the Group” by Ralph Rugoff as part of "What Makes A Great Exhibition?"

 Points of significance:

• Curator’s thoughts vs an artist’s… how would they vary? Who would consider the form/content/context over skill and background?

• Ideas of “new discovery” being brought about by the collaboration and careful selection of pieces

• “Complicates, amplifies, and enlivens”

• “Packaging” and the surrounding environment in which we perceive a piece as it relates to the subsequential merit we attribute it

• Holding the viewer in regard during the installation and decision processes

• Making sure not to be held to the theme as a boundary but as attitude for curation

• We cannot expect (of our audience, or of ourselves as viewers) any sort of objective standpoint, we all come with preconceived notions of what these works should/shouldn’t contain based on the attributes of their arrangement.

• Group shows as they relate to installation art – qualities of collaboration and careful working with the environment.

• “Boundaries between art objects and their surroundings… dissolved”

• Providing a context in which art can surprise and thrill

• How can we as a non-themed show incorporate valid and worthwhile questions into the installation process? What are barriers we will face with that line of questioning?

Reflection: 

“You Talking to Me? On Curating Group Shows that Give you a Chance to Join the Group” by Ralph Rugoff is a contemplative and informational piece about the nature of art curation and the inclusion of the viewer in a too-often architecturally hostile museum space. The piece asks us to consider the viewer – their experiences, questions, and relevance – as we assemble and construct a group show. The piece is directed at curation, the collection of items and works for a staged environment, but it’s helpful to us as artists as well, due to its unique ability to display the well-worked technical side of the professional art world. The piece discusses the “packaging” of pieces, how they are surrounded and encompassed by their environment, and what this means for a viewer. Rugoff’s investigation into themed shows piques interest as well: reflecting on the boundaries theming places on both artists and viewers. Overall, the work attempts to lay out the qualities of a successful exhibition, focusing on the ambitions of a curator as a “caretaker” of work, and how that impacts the audience. As artists, the work asks us to consider how to collaborate and enmesh within a space, curating shows that ask the right questions while also allowing room for the audience to make their own interpretations based on their histories and backgrounds. We are instructed to consider the meaning behind the work we sit beside, and how the experience of inhabiting this space will evolve with each passing viewer. The work asks us to incorporate the audience into our theorization and explanation – creating an environment where questions are both asked and sufficiently answered by the work itself. This, in turn, highlights the various unique strengths of different artists, and eventually discusses the works and their merits.