Research.

The Unmonumental Exhibition.

In researching the exhibition Unmonumental: the object in the 21st century, it seems that the curators (Richard Flood, Laura Hoptman and Massimiliano Gioni) seized the opportunity of working with and responding to a new space, similarly to our approach with the Cowgate space. The show was held at the New Museum of Contemporary art in New York. In an interview, Gioni states: ‘All of the sculptures are installed in the galleries without any partitions or temporary walls. The installation reveals the original architecture in all its purity, with the artworks occupying space but not as a rule touching the architecture... ’ (Scobie, 2007). This I feel is very successful when exhibiting contemporary sculpture, for the reason that Gioni continues: ‘Visiting the show should feel like walking around a landscape, maybe a landscape of ruins and instability ‘. For the viewer of my work, I hope to gain a sense of immersion, almost like they are walking amongst and observing particular scenes that could be seen as stills/props from a theatre/movie set or even from everyday life. What is even more interesting about this exhibition is it evolved as after a month, around the sculptures they installed an exhibition of two-dimensional works, and this was in order to make the show ‘more intense’. The curators then added sound to galleries. Gioni states: ‘Sculptures, collages and sound- it should be an incredibly dense environment, a collage in itself, or maybe a contemporary ‘merzbau’.

http://www.shuimohua.com/news/e-news/catalogue-1/2007_6/40.htm
This method of curating a ‘collage’ is interesting as in some respects we are emulating a similar experience in Just to Say. The difference being we are incorporating the different elements from the start. In both spaces my sculptures remain standing in white wall space with two-dimensional work from Fyfe and Reid in the walls surrounding and sound from Melot’s films in the adjacent rooms. It will be interesting to see the impact this has on the experience of my piece, my hope is that it will enrich the viewing experience.