“The meander as curatorial technique for online exhibitions” presented by Legassie
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Virtual (full papers)
Presentation Title:
- The meander as curatorial technique for online exhibitions
Presentation Subtheme:
- Speculative practices
Presenter(s):
Abstract:
This paper will address the emergent realm of online ex-hibitions through the specificities of my doctoral re-search-creation thesis exhibition improvement becomes a wall, and the river meanders still, 2022. The online sound and video-based exhibition speaks to relations with water as they emerge and shift through urban devel-opment. Taking up a critical (re)reading of colonial no-tions of ‘improvement,’ my artist collaborators Danica Evering, Elijah Harper, and Shelby Lisk revisit the con-nection between Wonscotonach (the Don River) and the city of Tkarón:to. The exhibition’s form and curatorial process are both expressions of ‘the meander’, inspired by the non-linear trajectory of the pre-canalized Don Riv-er. The curatorial process of improvement becomes a wall, and the river meanders still began before the global COVID-19 pandemic and, subsequently, was derailed in March 2020. The exhibition’s final form was unknowable throughout much of the curatorial process. Thus, follow-ing the meander as a curatorial technique, the process, online exhibitionary structure, and content had to adapt through lingering uncertainty.
