Introspective: Contemplations on Curating investigates and comments upon curatorial practice by recontextualizing objects from the Chipstone Foundation and the Bard Graduate Center Study Collection.Throughout this process, several key questions emerged. Why do we choose an object for an exhibition, and in what ways do our choices reveal subjectivity? How do curatorial decisions reflect and structure issues of visibility, value, collections development, and public engagement? Through this installation, staged in the Center’s Object Lab, we offer our responses.
Exhibitions depend on collaboration. Among the many contributors are: curators, registrars, collection managers, conservators, graphic and exhibition designers, preparators, educators, administrators, media specialists, event managers, fundraisers, donors, facilities and security staff, librarians and archivists, scholars and critics, and, at the most fundamental level, museum visitors. While these titles connote discrete roles, in practice they overlap, contradict, and blend with one another. Our aim is to offer a window–literally–into the complicated processes surrounding curatorial work and to highlight the active yet often invisible choices we make as a community when planning, experiencing, and participating in an exhibition.
Clara, Cindy, and Angelik taking a crack at developing an object list.