Curatorial Rationale 

I chose to focus my work on the topic of dementia. I chose this topic because of the strong, personal ties I have with the disease. My main intention is to present an exhibition of artworks that inform the viewer about the effects of the illness, and visually show a glimpse of the realm of dementia and the impact the illness has on the physical and mental well-being of a person.

The selection of the artworks are exhibited in a specific manner to be viewed from left to right. The first piece, “Little Miss Perfect”, focuses on how dementia affects sight, speech, and thinking, with each column of the plaster heads representing the symptoms with the use of gold leaf applied to each area of the sculptural portrait. These casts have been created by using my own face, each plaster head is deliberately distorted to reinforce the idea of the condition of dementia. 

In this exhibition, the selection of artworks has personal meaning, where the viewer can see how dementia has impacted my family. “Ode To Forgetting” and “When Worlds Collide'' are placed next to each other in the exhibition to create the connection between my grandmother, who died from dementia, and four famous people who impacted her life in some way or another, and that eventually suffered the same illness. Both these pieces are paintings, and were influenced by Paula Rego and Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawing studies of older people. 

The inquiry into the research of dementia led me to study more and understand the importance of the treatments and therapies that are used for patients with dementia. The artwork placed underneath the painting of my grandmother “Ode To Forgetting”, is a sculptural piece and is set up in a specific manner to help direct the viewer to look at the sculpture “Therapy” from above. I chose to create this piece by molding shapes of brains and painting areas of the sculpture in gold to represent how music stimulates areas of the brain that are affected by dementia. 

The last piece in the exhibition is my most personal piece as it represents the future impact that dementia could have on my mother, which is reflected in each photograph of her facial expressions. This piece is an installation and was expressively hung in order to be seen from multiple angles, starting from left to right. Each photograph is suspended from the ceiling and on each piece, there is the image of my mother, who is consequently being covered in gold handprints, following my ongoing theme of representing dementia with gold paint. The artist, Yun Hee Lee influenced me to expand my use of materials and explore the use of gold to add meaning to my pieces. On the other side of the suspended images, there are reproductions of my grandmother’s diary entries. As the images of my mother progress in the hanging of the installation, the photographs of my mother closer to the right change with the use of more gold paint, juxtaposing the writing of the diary entries, which are less legible to read. By the end of the installation, the diary entries become medical records. By hanging it from the ceiling, viewers can touch and read and learn what the back of the pictures say, and become more involved when viewing this work, which represents my family's experience with dementia. This goes along with my initial intentions of helping the viewer to connect and learn about dementia, and how closely it has affected me, my mother, and my grandmother. 

The materials and the curation of my artworks are intended to illustrate each piece as a different layer of the disease analysis of how dementia affects the body and the mind of different people, from my family to famous people. This layout also allows the viewers to see my two largest pieces at the beginning and at the end of the exhibition with the intention to invite the audience to touch and interact with the pieces and discover about the world of dementia.

Myah Brock Curatorial Rationale

The exhibition Look How Far I’ve Come is a personal timeline reflecting on multiple aspects of my life. It is mostly looking at my past in my pieces such as The Shapes of Home and Take Me Back to My Roots and also showcases aspects of the present and future thoughts, for example in the piece It’s All About How You Look At It. The selection of pieces all connect to my personal reflections on the events that have occurred recently and the events that have shaped me into the artist and person I am today. The exhibition is acting as a timeline going through major life events and major aspects of my identity. After moving across the ocean and experiencing life in a pandemic, my past is very important to me. I hold on to the positive and negative memories that came before and after Covid-19 and after the move in the pieces I created. I have changed, developing into a stronger version of myself everyday. This idea is reflected in my exhibition. 

The beginning of my timeline starts with the first piece I created, The Shapes of Home. This piece is a transcription of Wassily Kandinksy’s Composition 8, manipulated to look like my home province back in Canada. I had spent most of my life in this province, the area of which contains very important people and history that has led to the development of my present self. In the original piece, the artist explored the relationship between colour and music, two very important aspects of his life. I used similar geometric shapes and a variety of lines to portray the idea of importance. In this piece the medium of oil paint was used, which was a new way of creating art to me. Experimenting with new materials is a common technique seen throughout my selection of works. For example, in my piece titled Take Me Back To My Roots, of which I was heavily inspired by the Chapman brothers, I used the process of Drypoint printing to express the impact of the two lives I have experienced in the two countries I call home.  I found that using different mediums for each piece helped develop the ideas behind my artwork. In some instances, I found it difficult to learn and integrate a new way of making art into my knowledge, but in the end it was very rewarding. Moving further along in my timeline of art, the impact of mental health and how my mind works is seen in the piece In My Mirror. In this piece, I utilised the material of mirrors, as this helped portray the main message. In the mirrors, I reflect on myself and the thoughts that bounce around in my head constantly. It is also an interactive piece as the audience can look in the mirrors and reflect on themselves if they choose to do so. Both the piece Take Me Back To My Roots and In My Mirror were pivotal pieces in my art course. They helped me realize that unconsciously I had been creating pieces that reflected how, when and where I grew as an artist and a person.

When considering the layout of the exhibition, I thought carefully about the best way to portray the meaning of each individual piece as well as the connections between them as a whole. The idea of presenting them in a timeline of events that had occurred fits perfectly with the theme of self reflection. The viewer is able to walk through this timeline and visually see my development and influences that have been shaped by major events in my life. Not only that, but my piece In My Mirror is hung with careful consideration of the audience’s viewpoint as this piece needs to be at the correct height so that the viewer can interact with the mirrors. The pieces are laid out so that there is balance between the sizes to ensure they all stand out equally, allowing each individual message to be understood, open to questioning and interpretations. Through my selection of works seen in the timeline, the viewers are able to see my self reflection. 

Curatorial Rational- Juhuy Hwang

My exhibition “All Together” is a collection of events with pieces dedicated to the topic of environmental harm and pollution. I decided this as my main focus because the instances of pollution are something we cannot reverse and it is becoming so severe that it impacts daily society and communities. Speaking up about the powerful connection between the environment and community is important. It has not been a topic we usually addressed in art where I think it should be brought up more to give awareness. The exhibition is a timeline to reflect on the major negative events we caused.

The pieces I created include many different perspectives of environmental harm. Firstly, I want to drag the viewer’s attention with my colourful but profound piece from the continuation of my 3D sculpture, Judgement Day. This piece was inspired by the work of Henri Rousseau’s The Dream for the original design. I found the colour palette in his work very balanced between the dark mood and the moonlight he is trying to portray. My intention here is to incorporate the use of subject matter along with the use of a dark colour palette to demonstrate the ending we will face from the rapacious attitude towards the environment. It alludes to the effects that will endanger our lives in reverse. I intentionally chose this as my first piece to make the viewer think about the causes of the destructive outcome. At the other end of my exhibition, I displayed my other piece from the same collection of ‘Decay’, Cold-heartedness. This piece was created to implicitly criticize the viewers for their ignorance and loss of passion about ‘saving the earth’ that leads to the decay of the ecosystem which impacts us, humans. This cause and effect relationship is portrayed through the link via the veins connected to the plant roots. I used heart in both pieces as motifs to represent survival and the idea of life being destroyed. 

Experimenting with various mediums and techniques can be seen throughout my pieces. For example, Hawksbill Amulet was inspired by the artist, Charles Robert Ashbee’s work. It is a necklace that focuses on the history of how jewellery was initially used as amulets that protect us from hunting, and how one of the most endangered animals that need protection are the Hawksbill Sea turtles. In connection to the collection of “Extinction”, Loss, is what I consider to be a pivotal piece during my IB Art course. This handmade sculpture is created from wire and paper clay in the shape of a healthy hard coral focusing which focuses on another species under the threat of environmental pollution. The sculpture embodies the temperature rise, marine animals and plastic pollution and brings awareness to the viewer to think about the harm and risk of extinction of the corals. I continued to develop my ideas by utilizing the ocean pollution connected to my second piece in my later works, as I intended to give prominence to the more prevalent environmental changes. Normal, from my next collection “Ocean Pollution” as a connective piece to “Decay”. I gathered a number of topics within the areas of study I worked on during the course, endangered animals, plastic pollution, coral bleaching in a concertina form. I pulled them together into one screen which is influenced by the Japanese folding screens during the Edo period. The screens represent one drawing divided into separate areas of the screen. The changes of the same ocean present and future, are illustrated within the coral in a cave that disappeared in Jeju Island, South Korea. My intention to present the changes in standard ‘Normal’ is illustrated by the masks(covid) underwater that causes large plastic pollution. 

When exhibiting my pieces, I considered using a part of my house or a virtual exhibition website due to the COVID-19 restrictions. I attentively thought about the best way to deliver my purpose as well as the combination of all my selected pieces together. I intent the viewers to walk through my exhibition and acknowledge the events that shaped the severe predicament we are facing. My work will be presented in a corner connected to the hallway, where the viewers will be walking from one end to the other of the hallway. The pieces are displayed with balance considering the size, colour palette and shape to ensure all pieces stand out with each message to be understood open to questioning and clarifications. They are visually guided from ‘Judgment Day’ remotely to pieces that demonstrate human’s actions that cause environmental harm and pollution by a separate wall, back to pieces that demonstrate how these will affect us in the future.  I want the viewers to reflect on their actions and give more attention to environmental events around them.

Hannah Ray Curatorial Rationale

The exhibition Turn of Mind reflects on my personal experiences and emotions, showcasing how I use art to understand and express myself in a way other than words. Using the experience of moving across the world and all of the emotions associated with doing so has helped me create my pieces and give meaning to them. Each artwork expresses how much emotions and feelings can impact a person, how missing people or places can affect both our and other's perspective on things as shown in my works Bright Lights, Bellamy and Restricted Travel. 

  Having a wider range of materials, I had the ability to explore new techniques that are new to me and which helped me inquire and develop as an artist. The making of my first piece Bright Lights, helped me to decide on which materials to use and although I was familiar with acrylic paint, I explored a different technique where I scraped paint across the board to create a blurred effect background. The Calgary Tower is more accurately rendered to reflect how at the time everything was so confusing to me. The idea of representing my home city and trying to find clarity and stability in a time of chaos. In comparison, my last piece Restricted Travel is a collage created using different types of maps of places I know and experienced. This brings a more personal meaning to the artwork. Elements of the motifs such as the maps to create the background, the girl in the center, the hands reaching out to one another and part of the world with the Covid-19 virus circling it, bring together my view of the world at this time in my life. The map of Stonehaven represents how confined myself and my family are finding ourselves in one place. 

  For me, it is important how the work is curated and I have chosen to display my work in such a way to represent how quickly Covid-19 hit when I first arrived in Aberdeen. By placing the piece, Bright Lights at the start of the hang, helps the viewer to move and read the work from left to right and presents a storyline of the unsettling situation of moving from one place to another. The ‘Character Development’ digital print is deliberately set close to the centre of the space to emphasise the emotional side of displacement. Having my pieces placed from dark to colourful create a contrast within the hang and helps the viewer to engage in each piece by bringing attention to the smaller details. I had to consider carefully the placement of the ‘Just the Two of Us’, the stop motion piece, due to the restrictions of the practical setup of the computer screen. Overall, this did not affect the final curation of all the work as the character within the previous piece is the main subject of stop motion animation.