Maybe it’s fair to say that most if not all practitioners require engagement with an audience. Who this audience, where they are and how best to engage requires exploration. This is vital to understand before the practitioner can engage.
The type of audience may dictate the method of engagement such as what options are available to a practitioner so the right choices are made. As a suggested reading for the week, Ways of Curating, Hans Obrist leads us on a path of alternative exhibition space with the use of a kitchen which evolves over time.
‘I didn’t have access to an exhibition space in a gallery or a museum, of course, but I did rent an old flat in St Gallen. I never cooked. I never even made tea or coffee because I always ate out. The kitchen was just another
space where I kept stacks of books and papers. This was exactly the feature that Fischli, Weiss and Boltanski had independently noticed. The non-utility of my kitchen could be transformed into its utility for art.’1
I feel that this highlights the need to explore what is available and suitable for any body of work produced.
Exhibition in a gallery or production of a book may not be the most suitable installation or means of dissemination. Would the context of the work mean that it is more suitable for a display along an old wall? Maybe taped to lamp posts? Can social media be used to disseminate the work or publicise information? If so how will you build a sizable following so that your work has a reach?
This examination of who and where a practitioner will find their audience will allow for clearer understanding, which, will enable this to be communicated in any project proposal. As a result, this could be considered as one of the last major milestones of the project. So without this milestone, the project may stumble, never reach completion.
Bibliography
1 OBRIST, Hans Ulrich. 2014. Ways of Curating. (First American ed. edn). New York: Faber & Faber.
