school is now in session

 

This show, 'school is now in session', was very easy to curate, we have some fucking amazing artists on this years School of the Damned (Class of 2018, Year of the Rooster). The only thing I said to my fellow roosters was that for this show I didn’t want any other theme than the fact that the exhibit was going to be online, and it would act as an introduction to our year as a whole. And basically, I am shook at how good all our work looks together without much direction. lol.

 

In my practice I usually use heavy curatorial themes, a unifying device or motif, in this case it was a smart board. My thinking was errr….school-classroom-chalkboard-online-smartboard. lol. I was worried about it looking a big ‘gimmicky’ but actually I think it looks groovy and ties in with what ‘isthisit’ is about - IRL/URL, etc. I super enjoy using a group format to curate shows, back in 2015 I curated a show featuring the participants of a residency at EEA Norway at blipblipblip and I think I find the challenge of escaping a ‘degree-show’ vibe alongside the ‘ready-made’ group format a totally interesting limitation to play with.

 

I am actually obsessed with institutional critique which is what School of the Damned is at its core. School of the Damned is a free postgraduate art course run by, and for, its students and exists to promote access to free education as a fundamental right and stands in opposition to the current system of higher education. At the moment we are looking at the manifesto and expecting to make big changes. I believe things have changed so much in regards to social economic climate than when The School was originally started (they are worse) and things have to change, so yeah, many exciting discussions surrounding this have already started.

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Curated by Helena Kate Whittingham