Towards a Curatorial Activism | Dr. Maura Reilly
https://www.maurareilly.com/pdf/essays/CIAFessay.pdf
"Indeed, the more closely one examines art world statistics, the more glaringly obvious it becomes that, despite the decades of postcolonial, feminist, anti-racist, and queer activism and theorising, the ‘majority’ continues to be defined as white, Euro-American, heterosexual, privileged and, above all, male. When perusing the majority of mainstream museums, for instance, one must search more diligently for the women artists, artists of colour, and artists of non-Euro-American descent. "
There is still ALOT to work toward when it comes to representation and activism, in the art world and everywhere else. I'm not surprised at all, of course, as I'm aware that in different parts of the country there are far less “progressive” spaces. Even the progressive spaces are lacking. We as a society need to evolve and use activism and knowledge to do this. It's not a one step process, but it's unfortunate it's so slow to get anything changed.
“Why were they knowledgeable about racially-motivated violence in a country on the other side of the world, yet unaware of what was happening in their own backyard?”
A lot of these issues are either intentionally hidden, underrepresented or not cared about when they occur. The lack of knowledge usually keeps someone else in control.
What is Curatorial Activism? by Dr. Maura Reilly | ArtNews
“…its history, institutions, market, press, and so forth—is an hegemony that privileges white male creativity to the exclusion of all Other artists. It also insists that this white Western male viewpoint, which has been unconsciously accepted as the prevailing viewpoint, “may––and does––prove to be inadequate not merely on moral and ethical grounds, or because it is elitist, but on purely intellectual ones.””
Like any other system of power, creating an opposition to the power is threatening. If white men have privilege and exclude all other artists, there’s less competition and they maintain the status quo of what is the primary viewpoint. Of course, this viewpoint cannot have much nuance if it is based on a very specific perspective from a very specific power. A white man’s experience is very different from a black woman’s experience. A white man’s experience is very different from an autistic non-binary person‘s experience. Therefore there are less voices being recognized in the prevailing viewpoint.
Some have tackled the historical canon, and have re-inserted artists—women and LGBT artists, for instance––back into a narrative that has left them out altogether simply because of their sex and/or sexuality.
Some uninformed people have believed that LGBTQ people have not existed for a long time and are now just becoming a trend. In reality, they were just severely under represented and would be literally hate crimed or killed had they explicitly represented themselves in their authentic lense. Now there is a possibility to bring these real, underrepresented people and correct history in a way.
Curatorial activism is described as the intentional representation of diverse artists, bringing attention to voices that have been silenced or misrepresented in the past. Showing exclusive attention and representation to diverse artists & works themed around this diversity commits itself to going against the narratives of conformity in the art community. By actively seeking out and representing under-represented communities when much of the work that shows up in museums and exhibits has been created by white men, an activist approach is made in order to make up for historical shortcomings. Bringing representation and challenging historical inaccuracy will change not only art, but the way we see people. If life reflects art and art reflects life, it is only rational to think that if we represent people in our art and our experiences, there will be more accessibility to it.
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