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Pete Driessen © 2010. Sandwich Board #2-Installation Detail (Loneliness). Dry Erase Marker on Sandwich Board. Size Varies. Series of 10 weekly Sandwich Boards. The Curatorial Cult Club/Kwestion Quration? Walker Art Center Open Field, Minneapolis, MN. An artist curated, ten week participatory/performative solo exhibition and alternative publication project. Artist Cell Phone Photo. |
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| Pete Driessen © 2010. Curation Study Image #1-Installation Detail (Which type of curator are you?) Xerox on Copy Paper. 8.5x11 Inches. Series of 10 weekly Visual Image Handouts. The Curatorial Cult Club/Kwestion Quration? Walker Art Center Open Field, Minneapolis, MN. An artist curated, ten week participatory/performative solo exhibition and alternative publication project. Image from Carmel, James. Exhibiton Techniques. NY: Reinhold, 1962. Artist Cell Phone Photo. |
The three main goals of the Curatorial Cult Club/ Kwestion Quration? were to: 1. Demystify and discuss the multiple vectors of the curator, the curation field, and the curatorial habitat and ecosystem. 2. Co-Curate a participatory exhibition/event within the Open Field commons that questions curation. 3. Self publish our curatorial discussion/outcome in an alternative publication at the end of the summer.
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Pete Driessen © 2010 Curation Study Image #3-Detail (Pontoon Boat as Curatorial Ecosystem). Xerox on Copy Paper. 8.5x11 Inches. Series of 10 weekly Visual Image Handouts. The Curatorial Cult Club/Kwestion Quration? Walker Art Center Open Field, Minneapolis, MN. An artist curated, ten week participatory/performative solo exhibition and alternative publication project. Image from www.freepatentsonline.com. Artist Cell Phone Photo & Internet Download. |
Multiple curation topics and definitions were informed organically via participant discussion. From curatorial models and museological structures to the curator as a developer of institutional memory, the weekly conversation acted as a springboard to our collective exhibition and publication. Topics included but were not limited to: Curatorial & Museological Spatiality, Habitats, & Structures; Curatorial Cults & Curator Star Status; Curator Traveler/Art Tourist; Curator as Critic, Collector, Gallery Owner; Curator as Participant & Viewer; Academic & Institutional Curator Vs. the Everyday Armchair Curator; Curatorial Capitalism and Markets; and a Curatorial Information Exchange.
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| Pete Driessen © 2010. Curator Flakes-Installation Detail (What Cereals Do Curators Eat?). Color Xerox on Copy Paper. 8.5x11 Inches. Curatorial Cereal Taste Test. The Curatorial Cult Club/Kwestion Quration? Walker Art Center Open Field, Minneapolis, MN. An artist curated, ten week participatory/performative solo exhibition and alternative publication project. Image created at www.cerealfreak.com. Artist Internet Creation & Download. |
Each week a brief structure was followed and expanded upon by the artist and participants: Creating the sandwich board, conversing with participants, distributing visual study handouts, taking physical or hand written surveys, performing an interactive task(s), recording documentational cell phone photos and videos, as well as follow up with internet post distribution via social media.
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| Pete Driessen © 2010. Fly Swatter-Installation Detail (Smiley Face). Internet Stock Photo Image. 8.5x11 Inches. Curator Fly Swatter Survey. The Curatorial Cult Club/Kwestion Quration? Walker Art Center Open Field, Minneapolis, MN. An artist curated, ten week participatory/performative solo exhibition and alternative publication project. Artist Internet Download. |
One week offered the theme of the Pontoon Boat as Curatorial Ecosystem, where participants engaged in the topic of the common Pontoon Boat as a site for aesthetic, creative and curatorial exchange. Another theme questioned human nature and curatorial behavior with What Cereals do Curators Eat?, by engaging viewers in an interactive and participatory Curator Flakes cereal taste test. A live Curatorial Fly Swatter Survey was another theme, where common fly swatters were given to museum goers to curate, operate, and manipulate.
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Pete Driessen © 2010 Detecting Curation—Detritus #12/Detail (Wolfgang Puck Hamburger). Half Eaten Hamburger, Penny, Type Scale, Marker on Copy Paper. 8.5x11 inches. Performative “CSI” image of found hamburger. Hamburger found by artist while detecting curatorial detritus around museum. Image 12 of 34 objects. The Curatorial Cult Club/Kwestion Quration? Walker Art Center Open Field, Minneapolis, MN. An artist curated, ten week participatory/performative solo exhibition and alternative publication project. Artist Cell Phone Photo |
A culminating exhibition and alternative publication was created with the theme, Detecting Curation, where participants used a metal detector around the museum commons to search for curatorial detritus. With a handheld, point-of-view cell phone video recording, the archeological digging and unveiling of found detritus, artifacts, and common waste became an alternative publication, as it was later placed in an anonymous labeled box on a picnic table. Each item discovered during the search was later documented and posted with a performative “CSI” image.
I hope to inform you in the coming blogs with further images and documentation. You can also view albums that I am still uploading on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pete.driessen or for further information you can connect with the Walker Art Center Open Field website at http://walkerart.org/openfield.
