Curating the Artist-run Space: Exploring strategies for a critical curatorial practice Pryde-Jarman, D. Submitted version deposited in CURVE April 2016 Original citation: Pryde-Jarman, D. (2013) Curating the Artist-run Space: Exploring strategies for a critical curatorial practice. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Coventry: Coventry University Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Some materials have been removed from this thesis due to third party copyright. Pages where material has been removed are clearly marked in the electronic version. The unabridged version of the thesis can be viewed at the Lanchester Library, Coventry University. There is also an appendix which has not been added to Curve due to Data Protection. This appendix can be viewed at the Lanchester Library, Coventry University. CURVE is the Institutional Repository for Coventry University http://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open Curating the Artist-run Space: Exploring strategies for a critical curatorial practice By A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the University’s requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Abstract The once distinct roles of artist and curator have blurred dramatically in recent decades owing to a blending process in both directions, which has led to a turn towards the concept of the curator as producer and author, and the development of the hybridised figure of the ‘artist-curator’. Within my practice-based curatorial research at Meter Room and Grey Area, the 'artist-run space', as both form and content of space, is used as a critical framework for artist-curatorship. Artist-run spaces play a significant role in the cultural ecology of the UK, and this project explores the power relations involved in the production, distribution, and consumption of work within the field, in terms of both a cause and effect of a contested relationship with institutions and commercial galleries. Artist-run spaces are initiated for a number of reasons, but this project specifically focuses upon those spaces that identify with terms such as ‘independent’, 'alternative', ‘not-for-profit’, ‘DIY’, ‘self-organised’, and ‘critically engaged’. Using strategies for the development of a critical practice, such as Chantal Mouffe’s theories on ‘counter-hegemony’ and ‘agonistic space’ (2007), and Gerald Raunig's concept of 'instituent practice' (2009), this project explores how curatorial practices within artist-curator-run spaces might offer different ways of working, and be used to contest hegemonic structures within the field. I explore the role of critique within curatorial practice, specifically in relation to the struggle for autonomy, the production of subjectivity, and strategies for negating or resisting cooption by the New Institutions of post-Fordist neoliberalism. Three curatorial strategies were developed from experimental projects at both spaces, and then explored at Meter Room over a 2-year period. These strategies sought to occupy institutional structures in new ways: through the re-functioning of 'void' space, blending studio and gallery functions within a Curatorial Studio , developing a paracuratorial practice referred to as Caretaking , and re-approaching the concept of a collection-based institution through processes of layering works and their vestiges within an Artist-run Collection . The practice-based research culminated in a 5-month durational project in collaboration with five other artist-run spaces based in the West Midlands region, which explored a strategy for the creation of a new speculative artist-run institution as a dialogical process of instituting values through a critical curatorial practice. i ii Contents Acknowledgements I would especially like to thank the following people for their invaluable guidance and support with the development of this project: Thanks to Professor Steve Dutton for his unflinching enthusiasm for the project from the outset, and the generosity with which he has shared his insight into a contemporary practice that is always in flux, and always demanding. Thanks to Professor Jill Journeaux for helping to steady the ship at the halfway point, and for helping to propel it forward again with the clarity of her informed guidance. Thanks also go to Professor Matthew Cornford for offering a different perspective on the research and providing a measured input at crucial stages of the project's development. Words of appreciation must also go to Janneke Adema, Sadie Kerr, Paige Perkins, Huw Bartlett, Laurie Preece, Michael Shamberg, Micheál O’Connell, and Dr Jonathan Gilhooly for their support as friends and collaborators over the course of the research. Finally, thank you to all of the Meter Room studio holders past and present, to members of the infamous and unashamedly chaotic Grey Area Steering Group , and to all like-minded advocates, co-conspirators, and curious visitors of events to have taken place at Meter Room and Grey Area since October 2010. iii Contents Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. iii List of Illustrations ............................................................................................... vi Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1.1: Artist-Curator 5 1. Artist-Curator.......................................................................................................... 5 2. Curator-Artist......................................................................................................... 6 3. Curatorial Practice................................................................................................. 10 4. Curator-Producer................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 1.2: Artist-run Spaces 18 1. Artist-run Spaces................................................................................................... 18 2. Artist-run Models.................................................................................................... 22 3. Independence........................................................................................................ 29 4. An Alternative......................................................................................................... 33 5. White Cube............................................................................................................ 35 6. Deferred Value....................................................................................................... 37 Chapter 1.3: Critique and the Institution 45 1. Institutional Critique............................................................................................... 45 2. Self-Reflexivity....................................................................................................... 48 3. New Institutions..................................................................................................... 52 4. Hegemony.............................................................................................................. 55 5. Antagonism............................................................................................................ 60 6. Agonism................................................................................................................. 62 7 Dissensus.............................................................................................................. 64 Chapter 2: Methodology 67 1. Overview 67 2. Curatorial Research............................................................................................... 68 3. Meter Room........................................................................................................... 71 4. Grey Area.............................................................................................................. 75 5. Occupant & Input................................................................................................... 76 6. A Protest Against Forgetting.................................................................................. 78 7. Curatorial Interventions.......................................................................................... 80 8. Evaluation.............................................................................................................. 81 Chapter 3.1: Curatorial Studio . 83 1. Aims....................................................................................................................... 83 2. Curatorial Studio.................................................................................................... 84 3. Artist-In-Renovation............................................................................................... 85 4. Caretaking ............................................................................................................. 90 5. Void Space............................................................................................................