The Collectors: Curators Speak
Laura Brandon & Dr. Robert Klymasz
Canvas of War & Under the Sign of the Cross
Museum of Civilization
Sylvie Fortin and Tom Hill
Ron Noganosh: It Takes Time 09.12.99 - 27.02.00
Ottawa Art Gallery
"I was an arranger of things and a sticker-on-walls of things from very early on," says Laura Brandon, the lone curator at the Canadian War Museum. "As a child I'd sort of organize my room into environments, and I'd have themes...." Growing up in London, England, as a teenager, Brandon spent many Saturdays wandering around the Tate Gallery. "It was a love of art fundamentally," she adds, "And a curiosity about art."
"By collecting items from the past, it was believed that you could rationally address the concept of the past," says Brandon, describing the origins of curating in the 19th century.
Because of the declining number of gallery and museum-goers, visual arts' mutating definitions, and the explosion of work in new media presented by "curators" outside institutional traditions (or control), the curator's role is undergoing some profound changes.
As collector, keeper and arbiter of what we get to see, the curator's intent is being unmasked, making the invisible visible—curators' identities, biases, and the ways in which they can shape our perception(s). "There's no way you could be totally value free," says Brandon, who formally trained, has been curating for about twenty years. "But you can make an effort to ensure that whatever you collect is reflective of the values of your time."
"I'd always been interested in historical photographs since I was a little kid," says Jeff Thomas, a freelance curator. An established photographer, Thomas' research of and use of National Archives' historical imagery juxtaposed with his own led to a curatorial project at the Archives in 1996.
"I was applying my photographic skills to the analysis of historical images, looking for those aspects that people don't generally see," says Thomas. "I found that there were very few people who were working with historical images and were aboriginal, so I felt there was a need for it." "Emergence from the Shadow: First Peoples' Photographic Perspectives" (Museum of Civilization) is Thomas' latest curatorial work.
Thomas' concerns continue to be around audience—getting the work to the people—how the work is received, and challenging the notion that the curator's voice is authoritative, the only truth that counts.
"Ultimately a good curator is a subject expert who's able to make that subject accessible to the non-expert," despite the whirlpool of influences like mass media, cultural fashion and political correctness, says Brandon. Continuing traditional acquisition practices, "(acquiring) war art that reflects the concerns of the generation in which it's produced", is another important task, Brandon adds. And in fiscally tight-times, not getting caught up in producing "blockbusters" that merely sell well.
"I'm not so much interested in packaging work or policing work - which is the way that I call people that just select works to neatly fit into a curatorial parameter or thesis," says Sylvie Fortin, curator of Contemporary Art at the Ottawa Art Gallery. "I'm way more interested in the process of and developing new work." Beginning in artist-run centres, Fortin, formally trained, began curating in 1991. Given that visual art sometimes has only a virtual existence now, her thoughts appear to signal a departure from curatorial tradition.
"It's more of working from an idea, (as opposed to objects) or a social phenomenon or something that's happening in real life out there," says Fortin of her practice. "It's much closer to the every-day or daily life."
Published in The Ottawa Xpress, 2000
"By collecting items from the past, it was believed that you could rationally address the concept of the past," says Brandon, describing the origins of curating in the 19th century.
Because of the declining number of gallery and museum-goers, visual arts' mutating definitions, and the explosion of work in new media presented by "curators" outside institutional traditions (or control), the curator's role is undergoing some profound changes.
As collector, keeper and arbiter of what we get to see, the curator's intent is being unmasked, making the invisible visible—curators' identities, biases, and the ways in which they can shape our perception(s). "There's no way you could be totally value free," says Brandon, who formally trained, has been curating for about twenty years. "But you can make an effort to ensure that whatever you collect is reflective of the values of your time."
"I'd always been interested in historical photographs since I was a little kid," says Jeff Thomas, a freelance curator. An established photographer, Thomas' research of and use of National Archives' historical imagery juxtaposed with his own led to a curatorial project at the Archives in 1996.
"I was applying my photographic skills to the analysis of historical images, looking for those aspects that people don't generally see," says Thomas. "I found that there were very few people who were working with historical images and were aboriginal, so I felt there was a need for it." "Emergence from the Shadow: First Peoples' Photographic Perspectives" (Museum of Civilization) is Thomas' latest curatorial work.
Thomas' concerns continue to be around audience—getting the work to the people—how the work is received, and challenging the notion that the curator's voice is authoritative, the only truth that counts.
"Ultimately a good curator is a subject expert who's able to make that subject accessible to the non-expert," despite the whirlpool of influences like mass media, cultural fashion and political correctness, says Brandon. Continuing traditional acquisition practices, "(acquiring) war art that reflects the concerns of the generation in which it's produced", is another important task, Brandon adds. And in fiscally tight-times, not getting caught up in producing "blockbusters" that merely sell well.
"I'm not so much interested in packaging work or policing work - which is the way that I call people that just select works to neatly fit into a curatorial parameter or thesis," says Sylvie Fortin, curator of Contemporary Art at the Ottawa Art Gallery. "I'm way more interested in the process of and developing new work." Beginning in artist-run centres, Fortin, formally trained, began curating in 1991. Given that visual art sometimes has only a virtual existence now, her thoughts appear to signal a departure from curatorial tradition.
"It's more of working from an idea, (as opposed to objects) or a social phenomenon or something that's happening in real life out there," says Fortin of her practice. "It's much closer to the every-day or daily life."
Published in The Ottawa Xpress, 2000
