SPRING TOPICS | Introduction to the Art of Curation
To create within the boundaries you have formulated in your mind, and displaying those boundaries visually and creatively is called curation, and it has existed since Ancient Rome.
The Gallery of the History of Ancient Painting in the Hermitage, c. 1800s
The word crystallised in the 20th century with its meaning in relation to ‘taking care’ of artworks in a museum setting. After watching Ted Talk with highly acclaimed museum curator ‘Hans Ulrich Obrist’, he explains how the expansion of what is considered to be art intrinsically expanded what the practice of ‘curation’ relates to.
“It is much much more than filling a space with objects, it has to do with filtering, it has to do with enabling, it has to do with synthesizing, with framing, also with remembering. ”
Though we as interpretive viewers receive a final product that looks seemingly effortless, these ensembles of ‘things ‘ goes through a set of personal and external parcels during the creators process of visualization. Hans also mentions his belief in the fact that curation means we as humans are constantly trembling, meaning we are always ready to receive new experience and to incorporate them within oursleves without losing ourselves. This visual of curation emphasizes the importance of different elements comprising one art piece.
It can be daunting to think about hitting the reset button on your social media. Many of us will find ourselves in new jobs with new titles, or with different passions and want to adjust how we previously posted on our profiles. Yet, a sense of nostalgia remains and doing the social media ‘gut’ can be tough. Even if you want to pursue a more curated feed to better showcase your current self and to increase your leads, curation is an art practice, and is more intrinsically prominent in creative, left-brain individuals. Nonetheless, this term has been said to highly influence our visibility online regardless of your field. Those who have found a way to intertwine all their interests into a cohesive tableau keep viewers around longer and gain more followers as a result of trust. This trust is built easier as these profiles have displayed content with more intent, and more to read between the lines.
Now considered one of the most overused words of modern time, we debunk what it really means to be a curator and how it has taken on a new life form. We are all natural born curators. We must choose what does and doesn’t fit in our spaces, and in a grander scheme of things, in our lives. It is natural to curate. Now with the word being used as a describer and marketing tool of pretty much anything put together, we intend to revisit the traditional modes of curation, whilst examining new-age curators and their approach to interpreting various pieces of art as one tableau.