Wednesday, August 17, 2011
EXAMPLE OF CURATORIAL STATEMENT
Fahrenheit 451
San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
September 12 - October 25, 1997
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“…a book, in its purest form, is a phenomenon of space and time and dimensionality...” Dick Higgins
Traditionally, the book is a container for knowledge – fiction or factual information or theoretic ideas conveyed through text and images. The essence of a book, however, is a very human experience: a relationship between the communicator and the audience using the book/object as a catalyst. A book is a sequential experience; we view the current page in the present moment, while previous pages rest like transparent images in our memories. It is only in reflecting on the entire work in retrospect that we view the work as a whole entity. Consequently, the book is a very time-based form of communication that by its very nature is also a tactile experience, creating an intimate experience between the object and the viewer.
The objects and installations in Fahrenheit 451 deal with the disintegration and re-fabrication of both visual and verbal languages. The essence and beauty of language is that we can use words and images to create layers of transparent meanings, both to clarify ideas and to reach abstract depths of meaning that evoke a visceral response. In this way, visual language can trigger an intuitive response in the same way that odors or music have the ability to stimulate subconscious sensations for which we have no words.
The artists in Fahrenheit 451 use the book format as an intimate container of the self, creating a personal narrative or a sense of the body, using skin-like transparencies and human forms to convey a very tactile sensibility. These books relate to the fragile and vulnerable structures which we are wrapped in: skin, hair, bone. Physically, these books explore the translucent areas of communication between the interior self and the exterior world.
Our existence, how we assimilate ideas and disseminate information, and our personal interactions, have been drastically changed by the modern age. It is virtually impossible to maneuver through our world without being influenced by the electronic infrastructure that we have created. We now communicate through machines more often than we do face to face. The artwork in Fahrenheit 451 investigates the modern age from a distinctly human perspective. Many of the artists use electronic tools to represent very human experiences. They have chosen formats that investigate the role of language, the isolation of words or symbols and their potential to create multi-layered meanings. They have created statements on how humans have used technology against humans, and on how we survive in spite of an increasingly fragmented society.
Cheryl Coon, Curator |
HOW TO + EXAMPLE OF CURATORIAL PROPOSAL
Calls for curatorial proposals will be listed in the artist opportunity sites: Artist Opportunities Some of the materials that you will be expected to provide in your curatorial proposal: 1. A cover letter 2. A curatorial statement - outlining the theme of the show and a brief statement about the artists and their work. 3. Images 4. Your C.V. 5. Bios of each artist. |
| This is an EXAMPLE of a Call for Curatorial Proposals from a gallery in San Francisco. Root Division is an excellent gallery with exhibitions that often feature emerging artists and curators: Root Division
Curatorial Proposal Submission GuidelinesRoot Division is an arts & arts education non-profit organization that was founded in 2002 by artists, of artists, and for artists. Part of our mission is to offer opportunities for emerging and professional artists to develop, which includes exhibiting work and curating exhibitions. We embrace artists with no experience in these area as well as those with extensive resumes. As we consider submissions, we intend to include a broad range of artistic practices. We strongly encourage that you visit our space, familiarize yourself with our past & current exhibition program, and understand the mission of the organization before submitting a proposal. Strong proposals will be clear & concise, will present innovative & engaging ideas, and will intend to draw a diverse group of participants & visitors. While we do not exclude artists & curators from outside the Bay Area, our primary focus is presenting local emerging artists and local emerging curators. Review Process: In an effort to reduce labor & time intensive submission and review processes, we have an Initial Review & a Follow-Up Review Process. The Initial Review is a great opportunity to submit the kernel of the curatorial idea, presenting a limited number of images and writing materials. Once the Curatorial Committee completes the Initial Review, we will request additional materials and a project budget from a select number of applicants for a Follow-up Review. Please submit the following for INITIAL REVIEW:
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The Role of the Curator
A curator of an exhibition is the person who is in charge of organising it. The curator decides on which artists’ work will be featured, the title or name of the exhibition and the theme or subject of the exhibition.
Your role as an online curator is to:
- choose a theme that interests you
- select 6-10 artworks that suit your theme
- choose a title for your exhibition
- make a catalogue for your exhibition
Catalogues are important, as they provide people with information about the ideas behind the exhibition and the artists involved.
Your catalogue can be an introductory web page, which you can make in Front Page or any other web editor such as Dream Weaver. Include the following information in your ‘catalogue’:
- the title of the exhibition
- a list of the artists featured
- a short explanation of the idea behind the exhibition (what the theme is, why you chose particular artists)
- short biographies of the artists (where born, lived/worked, died)
- acknowledgements (an alphabetical listing of references that you used, see ‘How to Cite References’ on the Activities page)
Your exhibition will be your set of images. For each image, list the:
- artist
- title of the artwork
- year it was made
- materials/medium used to create it
- dimensions of the work (its size)
- current location of the work
CHRIS DRURY
| CHRIS DRURY
BIOGRAPHY | |
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| STARTING POINTS | |
| An Experience of Landscape | |
From early in my career I have walked and spent time in the so called ‘wild’ places on the planet. This has given me a bedrock of experience from which I continue to draw inspiration for all aspects of my work. My first long walk was in the Canadian Rockies with Hamish Fulton in 1975. I began to make small interventions in the landscape during these walks: a shelter made from materials to hand as a way of exploring how we dwell in the land; or a cairn built fast as a way of marking a remarkable place at an extraordinary time. Materials from these places would be placed in the rucksack and later made into baskets or small bundles. Works made from these experiences are essentially photographic. These early interventions have taught me how to use simple, local materials which can give rise to large structures, made cheaply and simply with a minimum CO2 footprint. Shelters later became cloud chambers and baskets, woven architectural structures. Today, when I walk, I tend to leave these landscapes untouched. Instead I use photographs, video, maps, earth pigment and satellite images to make works from the experience, after the event. I may also work with scientists and clinicians to make links to other areas in the microcosm. My two months spent in Antarctica (2006-7) act as a kind of absolute or benchmark, with which to compare and contrast other phenomena.
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| The Site | |
| When I am invited to make something on a particular site I take into account: the landscape and ecology, the local culture and the remit of the organisation. The land, the lie of the land and the material of the land will be the primary influence on the kind of work envisioned. This holds true for a work designed to go inside a building. These factors will be mediated by the requirements of the client and may mean a collaboration with various experts in the particular field. Through site visits, drawings and dialogue, the work will evolve until an agreed plan and budget emerges. Then the work will be constructed. A work may grow and change and may require a degree of management.
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| Mushrooms and Text | |
Like the composer John Cage, I have always been fascinated by fungi. Mushrooms are the great recyclers of our ecosystems. They break down dead matter back into the soils in which we grow our food. The mandala pattern of the gills reminds us of the cycles of the universe. A mushroom can feed you, kill you or cure you. I first used a mushroom spore print at the centre of the ‘Medicine Wheel’ in 1982 and have continued to collect mushrooms and their spore prints ever since. I now have a library of these prints which have been scanned and stored and which I can use as the basis of further works. Used in conjunction with hand written text in radiating lines mirroring the pattern of the gills or flowing out in more chaotic patterns, I am able to use this juxtaposition of pattern and text to make new connections.
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| The Body | |
A problem with modern societies is that we see ourselves as separate from nature and therefore at liberty exploit it. The result is that we destroy the very ground of our existence. However, it is obvious that we are nature and that systems in our bodies obey the same laws as systems in the universe. So I have continued to explore this using a number of different media, materials and scales; the largest, Heart of Reeds being several acres. During a residency at Conquest Hospital in Hastings I explored wave patterns in echocardiograms in works on paper, and later incorporated these same patterns into courtyard garden designs for hospitals. Two have so far been built and another should be completed in 2007. My continuing interest has been systems of flow in the body, notably in the heart, and similar systems in rivers, glaciers and weather patterns on the planet. I have made a number of works from Iceland using satellite images of storms experienced on the ground. In Antarctica scientists have been collecting echo-recordings of the icecap from aircraft and the resulting echo-images are remarkably similar to echocardiograms and give us a unique picture of the last 900,000 years, laid down in layers in the ice. It is my intention to work with this data to make new links.
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BILL VIOLA
Bill Viola (b.1951) is considered a pioneer in the medium of video art and is internationally recognized as one of today's leading artists. He has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art, and in so doing has helped to greatly expand its scope in terms of technology, content, and historical reach. For over 35 years he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television broadcast. Viola's video installations—total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound—employ state-of-the-art technologies and are distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity. They are shown in museums and galleries worldwide and are found in many distinguished collections. His single channel videotapes have been widely broadcast and presented cinematically, while his writings have been extensively published, and translated for international readers. Viola uses video to explore the phenomena of sense perception as an avenue to self-knowledge. His works focus on universal human experiences—birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness—and have roots in both Eastern and Western art as well as spiritual traditions, including Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and Christian mysticism. Using the inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories, his videos communicate to a wide audience, allowing viewers to experience the work directly, and in their own personal way.
Bill Viola received his BFA in Experimental Studios from Syracuse University in 1973 where he studied visual art with Jack Nelson and electronic music with Franklin Morris. During the 1970s he lived for 18 months in Florence, Italy, as technical director of production for Art/Tapes/22, one of the first video art studios in Europe, and then traveled widely to study and record traditional performing arts in the Solomon Islands, Java, Bali, and Japan. Viola was invited to be artist-in-residence at the WNET Channel 13 Television Laboratory in New York from 1976-1980 where he created a series of works, many of which were premiered on television. In 1977 Viola was invited to show his videotapes at La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia) by cultural arts director Kira Perov who, a year later, joined him in New York where they married and began a lifelong collaboration working and traveling together.
In 1979 Viola and Perov traveled to the Sahara desert, Tunisia to record mirages. The following year Viola was awarded a U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellowship and they lived in Japan for a year and a half where they studied Zen Buddhism with Master Daien Tanaka, and Viola became the first artist-in-residence at Sony Corporation's Atsugi research laboratories. Viola and Perov returned to the U. S. at the end of 1981 and settled in Long Beach, California, initiating projects to create art works based on medical imaging technologies of the human body at a local hospital, animal consciousness at the San Diego Zoo, and fire walking rituals among the Hindu communities in Fiji. In 1987 they traveled for five months throughout the American Southwest photographing Native American rock art sites, and recording nocturnal desert landscapes with a series of specialized video cameras. More recently, at the end of 2005, they journeyed with their two sons to Dharamsala, India to record a prayer blessing with the Dalai Lama.
Music has always been an important part of Viola's life and work. From 1973-1980 he performed with avant-garde composer David Tudor as a member of his Rainforest ensemble, later called Composers Inside Electronics. Viola has also created videos to accompany music compositions including 20th century composer Edgard Varèse' Déserts in 1994 with the Ensemble Modern, and, in 2000, a three-song video suite for the rock group Nine Inch Nails' world tour. In 2004 Viola began collaborating with director Peter Sellars and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen to create a new production of Richard Wagner's opera, Tristan und Isolde, which was presented in project form by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in December 2004, and later at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York (2007). The complete opera received its world premiere at the Opéra National de Paris, Bastille in April 2005.
Since the early 1970s Viola's video art works have been seen all over the world. Exhibitions include Bill Viola: Installations and Videotapes, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1987; Bill Viola: Unseen Images, seven installations toured six venues in Europe, 1992-1994, organized by the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Kira Perov. Viola represented the U.S. at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995 with Buried Secrets, a series of five new installation works. In 1997 the Whitney Museum of American Art organized Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey that included over 35 installations and videotapes and traveled for two years to six museums in the United States and Europe. In 2002 Viola completed his most ambitious project, Going Forth By Day, a five part projected digital "fresco" cycle, his first work in High-Definition video, commissioned by the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin and the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Bill Viola: The Passions, a new series inspired by late medieval and early Renaissance art, was exhibited at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles in 2003 then traveled to the National Gallery, London, the Fondación "La Caixa" in Madrid and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. One of the largest exhibitions of Viola's installations to date, Bill Viola: Hatsu-Yume (First Dream) (2006-2007), drew over 340,000 visitors to the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. In 2007 nine installations were shown at the Zahenta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; and Ocean Without a shore was created for the 15th century Church of San Gallo during the Venice Biennale. In 2008 Bill Viola: Visioni interiori, a survey exhibition organized by Kira Perov, was presented in Rome at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
Viola is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1989, and the first Medienkunstpreis in 1993, presented jointly by Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, and Siemens Kulturprogramm, in Germany. He holds honorary doctorates from Syracuse University (1995), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1997), California Institute of the Arts (2000), and Royal College of Art, London (2004) among others, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000. In 1998 Viola was invited to be a Scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles and in 2009 received the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts, MIT and the Catalonia International Prize, Barcelona, Spain. In 2006 he was awarded Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government. Bill Viola and Kira Perov, his wife and long-time collaborator, live and work in Long Beach, California.
KIRA PEROV
Kira Perov is executive director of Bill Viola Studio. She has worked closely with Bill Viola, her husband and partner since 1978, managing, guiding and assisting with the production of all of his videotapes and installations. With her knowledge of photography and video, she has also documented their working process on location and in the studio and amassed a large archive of images from their experiences together. The finished works have also been extensively documented, as objects as well as in digital form. She has worked on the cutting edge with printers to translate the moving images of video onto paper in stills and frame grabs, encouraging experimentation of printing techniques. She edits all Bill Viola publications, working closely with curators and designers. Perov also organizes and coordinates exhibitions of the work worldwide.
Before meeting Viola, Kira Perov was director of cultural activities at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, curating exhibitions and producing concerts. Later, at the Long Beach Museum of Art in California, Perov compiled a ten-year history of video art exhibitions and documented the video collection at the museum. Her photographs, including those documenting Viola's work, have been widely published.
Bill Viola received his BFA in Experimental Studios from Syracuse University in 1973 where he studied visual art with Jack Nelson and electronic music with Franklin Morris. During the 1970s he lived for 18 months in Florence, Italy, as technical director of production for Art/Tapes/22, one of the first video art studios in Europe, and then traveled widely to study and record traditional performing arts in the Solomon Islands, Java, Bali, and Japan. Viola was invited to be artist-in-residence at the WNET Channel 13 Television Laboratory in New York from 1976-1980 where he created a series of works, many of which were premiered on television. In 1977 Viola was invited to show his videotapes at La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia) by cultural arts director Kira Perov who, a year later, joined him in New York where they married and began a lifelong collaboration working and traveling together.
In 1979 Viola and Perov traveled to the Sahara desert, Tunisia to record mirages. The following year Viola was awarded a U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellowship and they lived in Japan for a year and a half where they studied Zen Buddhism with Master Daien Tanaka, and Viola became the first artist-in-residence at Sony Corporation's Atsugi research laboratories. Viola and Perov returned to the U. S. at the end of 1981 and settled in Long Beach, California, initiating projects to create art works based on medical imaging technologies of the human body at a local hospital, animal consciousness at the San Diego Zoo, and fire walking rituals among the Hindu communities in Fiji. In 1987 they traveled for five months throughout the American Southwest photographing Native American rock art sites, and recording nocturnal desert landscapes with a series of specialized video cameras. More recently, at the end of 2005, they journeyed with their two sons to Dharamsala, India to record a prayer blessing with the Dalai Lama.
Music has always been an important part of Viola's life and work. From 1973-1980 he performed with avant-garde composer David Tudor as a member of his Rainforest ensemble, later called Composers Inside Electronics. Viola has also created videos to accompany music compositions including 20th century composer Edgard Varèse' Déserts in 1994 with the Ensemble Modern, and, in 2000, a three-song video suite for the rock group Nine Inch Nails' world tour. In 2004 Viola began collaborating with director Peter Sellars and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen to create a new production of Richard Wagner's opera, Tristan und Isolde, which was presented in project form by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in December 2004, and later at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York (2007). The complete opera received its world premiere at the Opéra National de Paris, Bastille in April 2005.
Since the early 1970s Viola's video art works have been seen all over the world. Exhibitions include Bill Viola: Installations and Videotapes, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1987; Bill Viola: Unseen Images, seven installations toured six venues in Europe, 1992-1994, organized by the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Kira Perov. Viola represented the U.S. at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995 with Buried Secrets, a series of five new installation works. In 1997 the Whitney Museum of American Art organized Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey that included over 35 installations and videotapes and traveled for two years to six museums in the United States and Europe. In 2002 Viola completed his most ambitious project, Going Forth By Day, a five part projected digital "fresco" cycle, his first work in High-Definition video, commissioned by the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin and the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Bill Viola: The Passions, a new series inspired by late medieval and early Renaissance art, was exhibited at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles in 2003 then traveled to the National Gallery, London, the Fondación "La Caixa" in Madrid and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. One of the largest exhibitions of Viola's installations to date, Bill Viola: Hatsu-Yume (First Dream) (2006-2007), drew over 340,000 visitors to the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. In 2007 nine installations were shown at the Zahenta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; and Ocean Without a shore was created for the 15th century Church of San Gallo during the Venice Biennale. In 2008 Bill Viola: Visioni interiori, a survey exhibition organized by Kira Perov, was presented in Rome at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
Viola is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1989, and the first Medienkunstpreis in 1993, presented jointly by Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, and Siemens Kulturprogramm, in Germany. He holds honorary doctorates from Syracuse University (1995), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1997), California Institute of the Arts (2000), and Royal College of Art, London (2004) among others, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000. In 1998 Viola was invited to be a Scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles and in 2009 received the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts, MIT and the Catalonia International Prize, Barcelona, Spain. In 2006 he was awarded Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government. Bill Viola and Kira Perov, his wife and long-time collaborator, live and work in Long Beach, California.
KIRA PEROV
Kira Perov is executive director of Bill Viola Studio. She has worked closely with Bill Viola, her husband and partner since 1978, managing, guiding and assisting with the production of all of his videotapes and installations. With her knowledge of photography and video, she has also documented their working process on location and in the studio and amassed a large archive of images from their experiences together. The finished works have also been extensively documented, as objects as well as in digital form. She has worked on the cutting edge with printers to translate the moving images of video onto paper in stills and frame grabs, encouraging experimentation of printing techniques. She edits all Bill Viola publications, working closely with curators and designers. Perov also organizes and coordinates exhibitions of the work worldwide.
Before meeting Viola, Kira Perov was director of cultural activities at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, curating exhibitions and producing concerts. Later, at the Long Beach Museum of Art in California, Perov compiled a ten-year history of video art exhibitions and documented the video collection at the museum. Her photographs, including those documenting Viola's work, have been widely published.
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