Curatorial Activism is an exhibition that is inclusive to everybody and not focused around western white male dominated art and by "giving voice to those who have been historically silenced or omitted from the ‘master narrative'." That being said the curator would include people of color, women, queer artists and non-European artists. In her work “Towards Curatorial Activism”, Dr. Maura Reilly states that she has “...coined the term ‘curatorial activists’ to describe those individuals who have committed themselves to ‘counter-hegemonic initiatives’ that give voice to those who have been historically silenced or omitted from the ‘master narrative’. In other words, curatorial activists focus exclusively on work produced by women, artists of colour, non-Europeans or queer artists.” There are many ways to be able to have professionals such as historians and authors to be more activist and as Reilly had said, that is obtainable by having there be “...more transparency, and more education: If we cannot help others to see the structural/systemic problems, then we can’t even begin to fix them. We need to make statistics more readily available, so that the empirical data cannot be dismissed or denied."
In her book, This Is What I Know About Art, Kimberly Drew had mentioned an instance where her professor had shown her class a piece that had them feeling white guilt. Drew made a post about this specific professor and got called into his office — "Then, just as I began to regret the post, he went on to explain that I had also made my classmates feel "uncomfortable" during the discussion. I retorted, explaining that I was upset the conversation had quickly turned into a support circle or white guilt. He looked at me and said, "If you want to be in a classroom with other students of color then you should not have enrolled in art history classes." This professor was my art history adviser." (27, Drew). This is something that is extremely disheartening and something no one should ever have to experience. Art is for everyone and is something that should be inclusive, words by Dr. Maura Reilly should be kept in mind with transparency and being far more educated. Having a professor — and essentially some kind of mentor if said professor is your academic advisor — dismiss someone and their feelings on a subject, especially one they are unable to relate to is disgusting. After this interaction, Drew did not let it get her down, she graduated and began a paid fellowship with Creative Time and she also made sure to cultivate her blog in her free time. She had even made it a point to focus on exhibitions that were free of charge to the public in the Chelsea neighborhood.
At the Lente Latine/Latin Lens exhibit on the NJCU campus in the visual arts building, there are so many wonderful photography pieces as that is what the exhibit is focused on. This exhibition, in the words of the curator Natali Bravo-Barbee, is “important to showcase various vantage points of what it means to have sangre latina (latin blood). While the history of our people has been written in blood and white-washed by Spain or Portugal, what remains alive and unites us all is that our ancestors persevered.” This exhibit's main focus is on artists who are of latin descent. I feel this is important because it highlights colonialism in the face of ‘white washing’ and it is important to note just as well because many exhibitions that involve curatorial activism directly respond to social injustices such as racism. Whether directly or indirectly, this exhibit does just that.
One piece that was captivating to me was that of 5 aluminum panels that were essentially just feelings of color to me. Originally I was unsure of how I felt looking at the images but it never became quite clear what I may have been feeling. Each photo gave me a different vibe but that was before I had read what the images were of. All the panels had been measured the same in height and width but each panel was positioned above or below one another in a row. The first panel is green and gray, the second is pink, the third one is blue and orange, the fourth was purple and blue gray, and the last was very dark, black with a slight shade of pink. Each photo blurred to a blob like shape and each having a similar depth of field, except. The middle (or third) photo having the farthest depth of field and the last (or fifth) photo being slightly off centered towards the right. This piece was made by Qiana Mestrich, and they are mugshots of black/latin women who have the same name as her. In her statement she mentions that the images have 'bruisy' colors that "metaphorically reference violence, like the red and blue marks that appear on the surface of the skin after its experienced physical trauma." This piece with her provided statement made me think of when Kimberly Drew had mentioned Ferguson and how it had affected her and not her coworkers. She says "It was as if Ferguson wasn't a reality for my coworkers. Granted you're not "supposed" to talk about religion or politics at work, but police aren't "supposed" to murder unarmed Black people, either... Every opportunity to heal the wound was met with extreme violence and disappointment."(47-50, Drew). So violence is a key theme, but the fact that the photos that Mestrich used were mugshots makes it that more apparent that she could also be referring back to police brutality as it is something that many people experience, especially people of color. It also makes me think of Maura Reilly when she mentions Aboriginal elder Mr. Ward who had been "burnt alive in the back of a prison van in Western Australia. In this case, they (police force) had transported this elderly man, who was well respected in his community, in a van for a 4 hour trip. The van had no air, had a faulty CCTV monitor and there was no spare tire or first aid-kit in the van. He had burns on his arms and his stomach and died of heat stroke because he was enclosed in a metal cage inside the van.
Another piece that caught my eye was Monica Flores' cyanotype on watercolor paper. There were two photos, the first one seeming carefree with Flores standing with her hands to her chest and her arms up, her eyes closed. The second is more serious where she is looking directly into the camera but still letting herself be taken through nature. First looking at it, I loved the many shades of blue that were hidden within the photos. I loved that I could pick up on the fact that nature was involved somehow. In these images, Flores is reflecting "upon the endurance of life cycles, and overcoming obstacles." I think this is a really unique way to express that and I find it to be really interesting because everyone goes through their own challenges. This piece titled "Existir es Resistir" (to exist is to resist) reminds me of Kimberly Drew when she would receive offhand remarks from her department head about how she didn't dress like everyone else but she took it in stride not wanting to be like everyone else and not wanting to fit in (53-54, Drew).
Works Cited
Drew, Kimberly (2020)This Is What I Know About Art
Reilly, Maura In Towards a Curatorial Activism
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