curating a painter study
Experiment Hong G begins to explore a possible role for a curator to assume. Hong G is a painter. Much of her work revolves around themes exploring the metamorphosis of memory as a space for time travel. Myself as a designer, I decided to assume the role as a curator when working with Hong G. During the brainstorming stage, we decided to take equal parts within creating the unknown. Because of mutual interests, it was decided that the concept or theme would revolve around memory. As individuals, do we remember the mundane? The days that are not memorable? If so, how and when? What does a mundane day look like? These were the questions that lead us to the project "process of remembering a day in the mundane" I gave the instruction to Hong G to write down her itinerary for three days. With this information, I chose what I believed to be the most unmemorable day.
The plan was that Hong G would paint for five days. Each day, I provided her with a new clue about the events of that day. The first day, she was given five constraints along with the clue. Each day, I lifted up a constraint, yet introduced a new clue. The itinerary I possessed was color coded with a key that separated the events of that day into necessity, transitional, relaxation and work. I chose to narrow down the subject to necessity. When things are done because it is a necessity, these events become habitual, which are something we may not reflect back on. The clues introduced a new color into the canvas, which she could incorporate into her painting as well as the highlighted text revealing the events of the day. The hope was that a viewer would be able to experience the process of remembering the mundane. The project partially failed in this manner because the experimental territory of dealing with the unknown. New discoveries were made about how I operate as a curator. There needed to be more of a clear direction of how I wanted the piece to look so the constraints could be morphed around a more clearly focused vision.
