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artist as curator

Fall 2014

Course #448

Rebecca Gongorra

Curating Life, from walls to a wall

“Working in a creative field is autobiographical, a reflection of ones interests, values, and sensibilities”
This was Steven Rand’s thoughts on curating and creative work. Today, everyone curates in their lives. They pin, post, follow, upload, and share details of their lives as well as values and interests. We each view each other’s usually careful curations on social media with a sense of curiosity and voyeurism into the lives of people we may or may not know and share our own with other’s who may or may not know us. The one true autobiography of one’s interests lies in what they chose to curate in their own homes. What images and text do we choose to place in the spaces we live and how do these choices define us? We find and collect art, objects, and take photographs that reflect our own interests and values. This process usually follows an autobiographical narrative of where we are or were at in that specific time in our lives and how our own personalities have changed.
This collection comes directly from the walls of the curator’s home and reflects the interests as well as the narrative of her personal life. Each room has a different narrative and once removed from the context of the room and placed in the same space they create a larger narrative of the life that is surrounded by this work.
Each piece has some memory, story, decision, or function behind it. As a viewer you get a glimpse into the home and life of another person that is not shared on social media but only to guests who are invited into the owner’s home. The artwork one decides to display can act as signifiers of the faith, wealth, taste, and socio-ethnic standing of the people who reside there. This collection showcases rituals in the home and the display of the social identity of the owner of the collection through material culture.

© 2023 by Laurie Beth Clark

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