Curatorship Task
Getting Started
The feedback and comments from your teacher and peers following your power point presentation should have helped you determine a theme for your Curatorship Task. Deciding on a theme and title is the hardest part of the process and, in many ways, it will probably be modified as you do your research and discover a better structure.
Start by reading through some of the possible essay titles on the right hand side. They might spark an interest or give you another idea. It is best to think about it within the context of a genre such as portraiture, documentary photography, etc.. You may find an excellent online course, or an academic essay, with a thorough bibliography to begin your research. NB. You may not plagiarise existing material! Only consult the best bibliographies to begin compiling your own first draft reading list. Read three or four essential texts on the subject and take notes. Summarise each chapter, article or website in a few sentences: what was the main point? Write down key information in short snippets, pertinent to your question. You need to collect evidence to substantiate your ideas later on; evidence includes:
Tag evidence with complete bibliography as you go along, so you're not hunting for footnotes at the end: author, title, date, publisher, page number, volume and issue (for a magazine); or website address and date accessed (from a reputable internet page) Jot down any good vocabulary that you come across while reading, listing useful terms or phrases where they might fit- a handy tip when you are at a loss for words. |
'Life Worth Living'- How is modern day poverty and deprivation represented by contemporary photographers?
Photo reference: Richard Billingham, Sebastiao Salgado, Mary Ellen Mark, Nick Danziger 'To shoot or not to shoot'- Should photographers intervene in a situation they are documenting if someone is going to be injured or killed or does a photographer have a duty to record an event to inform the wider world? Photo reference: Don McCullin, Eddie Adams, Nick Ut, James Nachtwey, Zoriah... 'She who tells a story'- How has the portrayal of women in photography been affected by social, political and / or cultural developments? Photo reference: Early 20th century- Clifford White, Edward Weston, Julia Margaret Cameron, Camille Silvy Modernism and the woman as an object- Man Ray, Hannah Hoch, Tina Modotti Feminism and the photography of the 60s and 70s- Cindy Sherman, Barbara Krugar, Victor Burgin, David Bailey Contemporary photography and advertising- David La Chapelle, Charles Alexander Moffat, Miles Aldridge, Tracey Moffat, Orlan 'It's a free world'- Should photographers uphold society's moral values or does a photographer have the right to photograph anything he/she wishes? Photo reference: Andreas Serrano, Sally Mann, Joel Peter Witkin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Larry Clark, Araki, Jill Greenberg 'Posing Beauty'- How is the concept of aesthetics (beauty) been represented by landscape photographers? Photo reference: Ansel Adams, Mario Giacomelli, Andreas Gursky 'Refocused Portrait'- How have photographers revealed new identities through the act of concealment? Photo reference: Cindy Sherman, Inge Morath, Eugene Meatyard 'Perpetual Motion'- In what ways, have photographers captured and represented movement of the body? Photo research: Eadweard Muybridge, Barbara Morgan, Aaron Siskind, Gjon Milli, Sebastian Stumpf 'Objects of Desire'- How have modern/contemporary photographers responded to the traditional genre of still life painting? Photo reference: Irving Penn, Laura Letinsky, William Eggleston, Sam Taylor Wood, Joel Peter Witkin |
This might help: Tate- Imagined Exhibition
A recent exhibition at the Tate Liverpool looked to the year 2052 and presented an exhibition of works from the Pompidou, Tate and MMK collections. The exhibition invites audiences into a fictional scenario in which the exhibited artworks will cease to exist and asks visitors to memorise the works to secure their future preservation. An Imagined Museum draws on Ray Bradbury’s 1953 sci-fi novel Fahrenheit 451, a tale of a distant future in which works of literature are banned and the only way to save them is to learn them by heart.
For more information on the Tate Liverpool exhibition, click the link below.
For more information on the Tate Liverpool exhibition, click the link below.
Use the Tate online resource where you can create your own exhibition from the institutions' collections.
Create a plan
Draw a chart, timeline or idea map to begin making visual connections between the bits of information you want to include, and start clustering and prioritising your interests in relation to your back up evidence. You should be able to write down, in forty words or fewer, an initial, focused area of investigation.
Introduction (this and everything apart from the conclusion must be written in the third person)
This should be structured like a press release. Include a quote that sets the tone, convey the perspective of the gallery (Eg. The Gargosian is proud to present...), give an overview of themes and content, go into more depth about your chosen photographers (why have they been selected?), finally, give a reason why people should visit your exhibition- what is it's importance and relevance to us today?
Look at this example:
Look at this example:
intro.doc | |
File Size: | 36 kb |
File Type: | doc |
Room by room....
Each room must include at least two artists.
1. Begin by giving an overview to the 'room'. For example:
This room introduces the Making Traces wing with two works that investigate and extend the body.
Since the political anxieties of the Cold War, through to the more fragmented global situation of today, one of the challenges facing artists has been to establish a sense of the individual’s position in the world. The act of making work that conveys a physical presence is fraught with urgency. This tension may be embodied in a coiled energy, or emerge from a careful process of accumulation. The immersive power of Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals, at the heart of this wing, was achieved by the artist’s sustained layering of veils of paint in complex combinations. Such traces mark the artist’s position in space and time. They are sometimes restricted by the limits of their physical reach, but can also be modified through the artificial extension of the body.
Magda Cordell and Lee Bul each find different ways of investigating the trace of the body. Cordell’s Figure (Woman) 1956–7 opens the body to energetic scrutiny. The network of painterly gestures seems to mimic the spread of blood vessels and tissue. Thirty years later, Lee Bul constructed Untitled (Cravings White) 1988 as a sculpture to be worn during a performance. Instead of plunging inwards, the soft costume grows outwards, extruding organic forms and tentacles that take the body’s delimited reach to new and fantastical extremes.
2. Present a biography for each photographer in this room. You can create a series of bullet points or write a short paragraph. Only include information that helps us place the artist in a context and helps us understand the work. Here is an example of a biography. This student has formatted the information as a series of bullet points but elaborated a little. If you do use bullet points try to limit it to 15.
1. Begin by giving an overview to the 'room'. For example:
This room introduces the Making Traces wing with two works that investigate and extend the body.
Since the political anxieties of the Cold War, through to the more fragmented global situation of today, one of the challenges facing artists has been to establish a sense of the individual’s position in the world. The act of making work that conveys a physical presence is fraught with urgency. This tension may be embodied in a coiled energy, or emerge from a careful process of accumulation. The immersive power of Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals, at the heart of this wing, was achieved by the artist’s sustained layering of veils of paint in complex combinations. Such traces mark the artist’s position in space and time. They are sometimes restricted by the limits of their physical reach, but can also be modified through the artificial extension of the body.
Magda Cordell and Lee Bul each find different ways of investigating the trace of the body. Cordell’s Figure (Woman) 1956–7 opens the body to energetic scrutiny. The network of painterly gestures seems to mimic the spread of blood vessels and tissue. Thirty years later, Lee Bul constructed Untitled (Cravings White) 1988 as a sculpture to be worn during a performance. Instead of plunging inwards, the soft costume grows outwards, extruding organic forms and tentacles that take the body’s delimited reach to new and fantastical extremes.
2. Present a biography for each photographer in this room. You can create a series of bullet points or write a short paragraph. Only include information that helps us place the artist in a context and helps us understand the work. Here is an example of a biography. This student has formatted the information as a series of bullet points but elaborated a little. If you do use bullet points try to limit it to 15.
3. Analyse three pieces per photographer or six per room if you have more than two photographers. Your analysis should use the image as a vehicle to present wider issues about your photographer such as
- social, political or cultural context of the time
- technique and materials used
- influences
- personal life events and how they may have influenced style or content.
Here the student has used the image by Steve McCurry to also discuss the wider context of the image, McCurry's intentions and technique. She has also included a quote to support her statement about his interest in extreme weather conditions. If you are merely describing what we can see for ourselves you are not going into enough depth.
Conclusion
THIS MUST BE WRITTEN IN THE FIRST PERSON.
This should summarise what you have discovered and the main similarities and differences between your photographers. You can also make connections between the work you have been researching and your practical work, even include some examples.
This should summarise what you have discovered and the main similarities and differences between your photographers. You can also make connections between the work you have been researching and your practical work, even include some examples.
This is not a perfect example. The student has focussed too much on superficial connections between the photographers and her own work but it's a good start.
Bibliography
You should have kept a record of all of your sources. These need to be listed at the end of the Curatorship Task. If you have quotes you need clearly identify the source.
First hand research is a big plus: for example, your own interview with an photographer or curator. Insert the whole transcript in an Appendix. Avoid wiki or other unverifiable texts.
Please use the Oxford referencing system:
How do I do it?
The Footnote/ Bibliography method requires two elements: footnotes throughout your curatorship task, and a bibliography or list of references at the end.
How do I do a footnote? Footnotes (sometimes just called ‘notes’) are what they sound like—a note (or a reference to a source of information) which appears at the foot (bottom) of a page. In a footnote referencing system, you indicate a reference by:
What are 'Bibliographical Details'?
They are information about a source. Such details include the names of the author, the title of the publication, the date of publication, the name of the publisher and the place of publication.
Book
List information in the following order:
M. Henninger, Don't Just Surf: Effective Research Strategies for the Net, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1997, p. 91.
Article / Chapter in a book collection:
List information in the following order:
M. Blaxter, 'Social class and health inequalities', in Equalities and Inequalities in Health, C. Carter & J. Peel (eds), Academic Press, London, 1976, pp. 6-7.
A Website
N Curthoys, ‘Future directions for rhetoric – invention and ethos in public critique’, in Australian Humanities Review. March-April 2001, viewed on 11 April 2001,http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-April- 2001/curthoys.html
Films, DVDs, and television and radio programs:
Strictly Ballroom, DVD, 20th Century Fox, Australia, 1992.
First hand research is a big plus: for example, your own interview with an photographer or curator. Insert the whole transcript in an Appendix. Avoid wiki or other unverifiable texts.
Please use the Oxford referencing system:
How do I do it?
The Footnote/ Bibliography method requires two elements: footnotes throughout your curatorship task, and a bibliography or list of references at the end.
How do I do a footnote? Footnotes (sometimes just called ‘notes’) are what they sound like—a note (or a reference to a source of information) which appears at the foot (bottom) of a page. In a footnote referencing system, you indicate a reference by:
- putting a small number above the line of type directly following the source material. This number is called a note identifier. It sits slightly above the line of text. It looks like this.1
- putting the same number, followed by a citation of your source, at the bottom of the page. Footnoting should be numerical and chronological: the first reference is 1, the second is 2, and so on. The advantage of footnoting is that the reader can simply cast their eyes down the page to discover the source of a reference which interests them.
What are 'Bibliographical Details'?
They are information about a source. Such details include the names of the author, the title of the publication, the date of publication, the name of the publisher and the place of publication.
Book
List information in the following order:
- author's surname(s) and initial(s)
- title of book (underlined or italicised)
- publisher
- place of publication
- year of publication
- page number(s)
M. Henninger, Don't Just Surf: Effective Research Strategies for the Net, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1997, p. 91.
Article / Chapter in a book collection:
List information in the following order:
- author's surname(s) and initial(s)
- title of article (between single quotation marks)
- title of book (underlined or italicised)
- editor(s) name
- publisher
- place of publication
- year of publication
- page number(s)
M. Blaxter, 'Social class and health inequalities', in Equalities and Inequalities in Health, C. Carter & J. Peel (eds), Academic Press, London, 1976, pp. 6-7.
A Website
- author/editor
- page title
- website title
- name of sponsor of site (if available)
- last date site updated
- date of viewing
- URL
N Curthoys, ‘Future directions for rhetoric – invention and ethos in public critique’, in Australian Humanities Review. March-April 2001, viewed on 11 April 2001,http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-April- 2001/curthoys.html
Films, DVDs, and television and radio programs:
- title
- format
- publisher
- place of recording
- date
Strictly Ballroom, DVD, 20th Century Fox, Australia, 1992.
Presentation
We would like you to present your final Curatorship Task in the form of a book. We believe that this is the best way to formally present what is a final outcome. Click on the images below to look at examples by past students.
We use Photobox http://www.photobox.co.uk/ as the school has a 66% discount. Despite the discount we still recommend that you choose the square soft cover (£16.99 before discount). This is more than adequate for the quality of finish we require. You will need to create your own account then share the finished book with us via Mr Holden- [email protected].
We use Photobox http://www.photobox.co.uk/ as the school has a 66% discount. Despite the discount we still recommend that you choose the square soft cover (£16.99 before discount). This is more than adequate for the quality of finish we require. You will need to create your own account then share the finished book with us via Mr Holden- [email protected].