Often curated exhibitions showing multiple photographers are a result of a competition, festival, a retrospective of a style or period. There are also call outs for a specific topic such as the FFotogallery’s “A woman’s work”, as a way of engaging a wide range of practitioners to fit a preconceived idea.
In 2018 I curated the exhibition “Architecture through the lens”, an exhibition examining the intrinsic link between architecture and photography. As this was an exhibition based in Bath, UK it was appropriate to engage with local photographers. When putting the call out for photographers I had a clear idea of how I wanted the exhibition to look, and it’s aims. A core aim was to demonstrate the variety of architectural photography, as such it was imperative the show included interior, abstract, commercial and include buildings from both a historic and modern settings.
However, unlike a curated show, most collaborative exhibitions will begin at the creative stage well before reaching the gallery. An exhibition I would have enjoyed being part of would have been “A FOREST” (fig2)17.05 – 16.06.2018. Inspired by the lyrics of the Cure song by the same name, A forest was the collaborative exhibition of six artists comprising of Caroline Achaintre, Anna Barham, Chiara Camoni, Sarah Chilvers, Peggy Franck, Anne Hardy – a group of artists represented by the Arcade gallery, London. At around the same time as this exhibition was showing I was embarking on my own project inspired by the same song “Into the trees” (fig1). The inclusion of my work would have added a more literal element to the exhibition as the view navigates through the exhibition, they would act as anchorage to the more esoteric works of the other artists.
References
https://ffotogallery.org/programme/a-womans-work [accessed 19.4.2021]
Images
The Space Between 