Wednesday, May 09, 2007

george paton gallery who ?what? yes let's!

Hey me again

I've been invited to participate in a group show of curated by a fellow curatorship student who back in the 90s (I think) was involved in a group of VCA (Victorian College of the Arts) who started up an ARI called 'Talk'. It was quite a good one I think, anyway the curator was invited by fellow 'Talk' artist/writer/curator and George Paton gallery co-ordinator Sandra Bridie to propose a show. So far the show is looking at curatorship students who are also practising artists. However the curator is adamant she doesnt want the show to just be an opportunity to show their work, but rather set it up as a place for issues regarding contemporary curatorship to be discussed. I was hesitant at first to participate because I don't really think of myself as an artist. I've met the curator and told her about TAC and wondered about the possibility of exhibiting documentation of our work as part of the show.

Of course it is very early days and I havent met any of the other artists yet and don't know how their work will shape the show but I just wanted to post this now to get some feedback from the group. I don't want to stand for TAC but i thought maybe documentation of our work could serve to introduce topics for discussion as part of the exhibition?

look forward to hearing your thoughts

xA

5 comments:

Liz said...

Hi Andie,
seems like the ol' TAC-mobile has shifted into a super snail paced phase!
I think our personnel make-up could bear further discussion.
Perhaps we could combine this discussion with a review of the CAMRU project. For example, we could ask ourselves what we brought to the project from our individual perspectives, and does that relate to our respective experiences/skill bases/vocations ?
Then if that approach is fruitfull, it could become the form of documentation you mentioned as a possible contribution.
Possibly, sounds a bit dry when I re-read that, but I am interested in tackling a CAMRU documentation project as a way of consolidating our efforts.
Can you tell me/us more about the George Paton Gallery?

Andrea said...

Thanks for your comments Liz- and what better way to reflect than in a bath of rhetorical questions?

Please forgive that I've been putting off responding to your comments in hope that I might get a clearer idea of the plans for the George Paton Gallery show. But the truth is we haven't had another meeting yet because we've all been very busy. Alas! here is a link to the gallery itself:
http://union.unimelb.edu.au/
actually that links to the student union homepage, from there please click on the 'george paton gallery' link.

For this exhibition -so far I've thought of presenting documentation of TAC in an orange clearfile format. In this clearfile I hope to include Tim Wong's article, the 'Prospect' Review from the Listener, Mark Amery's review of 'Every Now, & then', Mel's 'Every Now, & then' essay, the Hue and Cry transcript, print outs from Art Bash, our alternative room sheets, our manifesto from the Prospect website/and or a copy of the Prospect catalogue essay. Most of this documentation appears to be in the form of review by others, ideally there could be some kind of self-review included as well. As well as some images of CAMRU etc.
Should i go ahead with this idea-I aim to position TAC as a critical and self-reflective collaboration, as well as a means for exploring alternative curatorial practice. Sorry if I still sound a bit vague!
speak again soon
xxA

Liz said...

hey andie, compiling all that documentation sounds good to me.

Although no-one else has given us any indication of their interest in your proposal I think it would be worth the trouble of putting those things together, even if just for TAC resource purposes.

A close reading of the compiled documentation could provide an overview of the issues that have sparked feedback/interest to draw together a critical self-review from, as you suggest, and from there we could present a review format to the rest of the collab?

I don't know what the timeline is for the George Paton show, and I am about to head to Europe for 4 weeks...

Once I get back maybe you and I could work on developing this self-review document and then propose an outline to the rest of TAC.

This might be a good way of rolling the idea along ... ? That way we aren't waiting for others to make the first steps - do we need somekind of green light to ensure we don't waste our time though... mmm - maybe emailing TACCers through their personal accounts?

It's an interesting idea, to present a gallery show of curators-slash-artists and a good opportunity for the curatorially inclined in TAC to bring their discipline specific agendas to the group dialogue. I would be interested to hear more about the curatorial practices that inform our collaboration.

From an artists perspective I am wondering whether we could make more use of the gallery context, at the moment a document seems attractive for its ease of production but I think we should consider that it will be 'viewed' also. Is an orange folder as far as TAC takes it - and is this our team strip now?
??
xx

The Association of Collaboration said...

hi guys,
sorry i have been so passive lately. i am also interested in a self reivew. ready to undertake from my return to nz mid july.

Paula Booker said...

sorry that last TAC post was from me!
x paula