Journal of Curatorial Studies - Curating the Sea, Oct 2020

This article explores the reasons for the recent surge of interest in exhibitions and displays featuring corals and coral reefs, as well as the challenges and opportunities involved in curating coral. I argue that, while it can be difficult to convey the complex natural characteristics of corals through displays of coral specimens in museums, exhibitions such as Coral: Something Rich and Strange (2013–14), and artworks such as Christine and Margaret Wertheim’s Crochet Coral Reef (2005–present) and Tamiko Thiel’s Unexpected Growth (2018–19), can deepen a sense of wonder in exhibition visitors and foster experiences of connection between humans and marine invertebrates – ultimately to encourage ‘response-ability’ to and for the natural world. I suggest that collaborative, cross-disciplinary modes of exhibition making – such as displaying works of art alongside scientific or natural history specimens – provides curators with opportunities to intensify the affective responses of audiences.

In 2017, a 25-metre-long blue whale skeleton was installed in the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum, London. ‘Hope’ became a symbol of the urgency of marine conservation, and of institutional relevance in the face of ecological devastation. However, the whale is but the latest in a series of dramatic installations of formidable specimens since the museum first opened in 1881. Originally intended as an encyclopaedia of nature, or ‘Index Museum’, the Central Hall’s history charts the intersection of exhibitionary aura and concepts of ecology. This article argues that the original Victorian framework, both institutional and ideological, continues to shape the museum’s ecological aesthetics, and therefore requires self-critical reassessment to be truly transformative.

The recent proliferation of exhibitions about oceans calls for an analysis of their curatorial premises. This article identifies curatorial methodologies consisting of procedures and exhibitions that not only speak about, but also through their oceanic subject matter in a performative way. The term ‘tidalectics’, coined by the historian and poet Kamau Brathwaite to articulate a worldview that eschews static land and evolves alongside water and flux, serves as an anchor to analyse curatorial work guided by oceanic thinking. The author argues that through a tidalectic methodology – which takes cues from natural processes such as the ebb and flow of the tide – current ecological, societal and onto-epistemological shifts can be addressed productively.

Review of: Lahore Biennale 02: Between the Sun and the Moon

Curated by Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi, Lahore, 26 January–29 February 2020

Review of: Poems for Impending Doom

Curated by Lucy Pauker and Alessia Oliva, Centre for Art Tapes, Halifax, March 2020–ongoing

Review of: Video/Art: The First Fifty Years, Barbara London

New York: Phaidon (2020), 280 pp., h/bk, ISBN: 978-0-7148-7759-4, US $35.00