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© Ingrid Chu, 2005. Used by permission
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Coming to Terms: Curating and Possibilities for the 'New' Exhibition
by Ingrid Chu
Date: 03 December 2005
Event: Toronto
Ingrid Chu
Ingrid Chu (MA, 2003, Curatorial Studies, the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York) is a New York-based curator and critic, whose past exhibitions include pretty, please (Toronto, 1999) and if only for today, perhaps tomorrow (New York, 2004) among others. Chu has also organized numerous projects in the public realm, including Re: Location (Toronto, 1999), involving commissions for a retail shopping center and a storefront gallery in Toronto, and Subscribe: Recent Art in Print (New York, 2003), involving artist commissions in such New York-based periodicals as Time Out New York, Cabinet, and Artkrush.com. In 2004, Chu inaugurated RED-I Projects, an organization that assists artists in the creation of new work in the public realm, with (VIDEOBOX) (New York, 2004), a series of video programs and an exhibition she co-curated for White Box and other storefront windows throughout New York's Chelsea gallery district. Current RED-I projects include THE GIFT wrap/set/boutique, a functioning "boutique" of artist and designer wares at the Julia Friedman Gallery (New York, 2005), as well as Slideshow and The One Liner, a series of online projects (www.red-i-projects.com). Chu's writing has appeared in such publications as frieze and Parachute, in exhibition essays for Eric Glavin and Chris Kasper, and in Afterall for an upcoming feature on the work of Aida Ruilova. Chu has also served as a guest critic at the ISCP/International Studio and Curatorial Program (New York, 2004), Parsons School of Design (New York, 2004/2005), and on panels at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (New York, 2004) and through the Christies Education/CUNY Graduate Center (New York, 2005). A former Toronto resident, Chu previously worked for The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and is currently Cultural Affairs and Development Associate at the Americas Society, New York.
Abstract
The need is not so much in "replacing" curating as it is in reexamining where art is being practiced and how as a curator, to frame it responsibly as a result. As the prior installment of this conference attests to, curatorial practice has yet to be adequately defined, never mind "replaced."
In fact, any attempt to locate where curating exists remains intimately tied to the place where its results manifest. Therefore, any discussion on this topic necessitates an acknowledgement of how art is still showcased (and thus firmly rooted) in its association to prevailing institutional forms - namely, the gallery and museum - and how by extension, publications and the art market sustain its critical reception and commercial significance.
To find meaning in art, then, seems to be both an effort to sustain and dislodge prior methods used in establishing its significance. At times, this is asserted in physical terms and at other moments, this is achieved through theoretical, psychological, conceptual, social and political means. Most recently and most significant to our purposes, are the debates surrounding art and its interpretation by curators.[1] Translating the art of our time into a broader context proves increasingly difficult given the dizzying array of what artists now produce, ranging from publications and multiples, to re-enactments, walks, interventions, art in the desert and even "art fair art." Coinciding with continuing efforts to politicize place (or rather, to acknowledge "displacement" as its own place that is defined by its own attendant forms), are artists who come from a variety of subject positions and who continue to explore the multitude of creative possibilities in challenging the need for their work to be legitimized by time, place, context, or institution.[2]
By extension, this necessitates self-awareness on the part of curators in acknowledging how these conditions impact their approach in contextualizing this work. If this mode of decentralization reflects a global creative sensibility in contemporary art practice, how do curators respond in creating more fluid frameworks to showcase this work? Do we have the ability to tailor, cater, and create a context for art according to any framework, place, style, medium, and region? Has the professionalization of curators and the reality of there being a multitude of "makers" in exhibition practice, allowed for more supply than demand? What of those artists who challenge the desire (and thus can be said to resist the need) to have their work curated at all?
These are issues I consider when questioning my own work as a curator and why, in 2004, I initiated RED-I Projects, an organization that assists artists in the creation of new work in the public realm.[3] For the purposes of this discussion, I will explore through different artists' work for past and current RED-I projects, as well as for other public art organizations, potentialities for the current and future state of curatorial practice.
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1. Perhaps this is the result of artist self-presentation and determination now having to be realigned with the increased dominance of curators.
2. I am specifically referring to cultural theorist Homi Bhabha's naming of the "margin as center" and whose theoretical position I have always considered as an apt description of many artists' work and of my own work as a curator.
3. The term "public" is itself problematic, and one that by my definition, is not about location but context, and how this really is a catchphrase for where and how art translates into its reception.