Tag: Curator

Arts

What Being An Art Installation Curator Means To Me

carolyncordon

For me, being an Art Installation Curator means thinking about that Installation often, every day in fact. There are a variety of different aspects of that, a main one obviously is having items on display, and the item above is such an item.

My ‘Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation’, in the Adelaide Plains Region of South Australia, is made up of found objects, so I’m always on the look out for items to put out On display, and that lovely battered and rusty Screwdriver is the latest item, and I was certainly thrilled to find it!

I was walking along the road this Art Installation is on, which is also where I live, and a slight deviation from my path brought me to this delightul tool! I quickly grabbed it, then took it along with me as my husband and I and our dog Lenny continued our walk.

it’s been a while since I’ve found an item of note, such as this one, and so when our walk was over, I happily and quickly examined possible options for a good display spot. And then I placed it out, as shown in the photo just there.

This Art Installation is home to a good few such tools, found by myself as I walk around various places. I’m not particularly looking for potential such display items, but am always open to the possibility of finding them!

Life’s like that, I feel – remaining open to good things that may happen, makes it more likely they will in fact happen. If I hadn’t taken that slight sidetrack today, this Screwdriver would have remained in the undergrowth, becoming ever rustier until it finally became a scattered collection of rusty scraps of nothing much at all.

As the Curator of this Installation, a major role is definitely the collection of such material. And the putting these items is of course an important part. Another not so readily recognised part, is bearing in mind possible ways to bring attention of potential visitors to what is on display. This aspect is an ongoing learning experience for me, and I’m glad to have this website where my various Business related interests are ‘out there’ on show!

There are over 700 items on display – tools, horseshoes, old chains, and a varied collection of other items, in various shapes and sizes. They’re found, then eventually put on display, for visitors to view.

I’m keen now though to bring an exciting new aspect of this Art Installation to the fore, and that is as a Tourist site. In the Adelaide Plains Region, agriculture has always been the most important business.

These days though, with ever increasing numbers of residents with no working relationship with agriculture, but only that of being a consumer of such products, there is much more of a focus on other ways to bring interest and so money into our region. My desire is to assist in increasing visitor numbers to the northern Adelaide Plains Region, to the betterment of all of us here!

Arts

On Curating An Art Installation

carolyncordon

The Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation was home to another event today, with a reasonable crowd present, to look carefully what was there, and then move to another venue nearby to write about what they’d seen.

The metal creature on the left hand side hadn’t actually been on display this time, and while the metal chicken was veiwable, she was no longer in such a prominent position. As it turned out though, Chikkie Chook still attracted quite a bit of attention, with several creative writing pieces created on the day mentioning her!

I get the feeling the Anthology being published related to this particular event will do well to include that funny chicken creature in it! I may do a photo shoot with her, to gather a variety of photos to choos from for the front cover of the book!

The putting on of events, and creating promotional material as well as written material, regarding the Artwork itself are all parts of the role of being an Art Installation Curator, a role I have gladly taken on, after the completion of the Creation of this particular installation.

I may not have known what I was doing at the beginning, but given the remarks from today’s event, I seem to have produced a worthy Art Installation, one that may become an item of interest for Arts minded visitors to the region.

I have other plans regarding the point, and certainly while this particular Arts Installation is personal to me, there are other Arts venues of interest too, one very close in fact, and I can see a role for myself in the future as a promoter of interest regarding both of these, plus other Arts venues in this immediate area.

It may be that most Arts Installationists don’t have ‘cleaning up of bird poop’ in their list of regular tasks to perform, but this one is certainly one I undertake at least a little bit every week. Clearing out of water from rectacles is another big one for me, another perhaps unusual one in the realm of Art Installation curation …

This Art Installation is an open air one, consisting of a gate and fence, as well as a nearby section of the property where the Installation is sited. So, open air means both the birds and rain, and so the poop and collected water, all need to be dealt with, if not on a daily basis, then at the very least weekly.

I’m not at all cross about having to do such tasks, walking the length of this Installation, and getting ‘up close and personal’ with the various pieces and sections of it, mean I’m getting an even better feel and understanding of what there is, and how it may be better displayed.

And as an added bonus, the walking required is good for both body and mind! And of course connecting with interested others is good for the soul too, so yes, being an Arts Installationist is something I’m very much enjoying doing!