Critical Animals invited me to present ‘The exhibition I never curated’ as part of ‘Creative Arts and Media Practice: Online’. Preparing for this particular presentation was mostly torment-free and it was easy to pinch my own images from the blog, but a little surreal. In this instance, I basically had to re-read the blog and research myself.

Aside from being horrified to find a couple of grammatical errors, it was interesting to explore and consider how the blog has actually evolved. Initially approaching it as a publication with mostly images, to a type of tool documenting curatorial practice that declares and gradually makes transparent the subjectivity and identity of its maker. The response to the presentation was surprisingly positive and people seem to have really hooked into the idea of a curator’s subjectivity, particularly changes in subjectivity.

The TINA festival seems to of changed so much. My first visit must have been in 2003 and I just remember being amidst a bunch of ‘kids’ more-or-less descending onto the city. This time it seemed as if many of the usual suspects were present, but older. And this was a part of the discussion in the final session ‘Is TINA a Critical Animal? (epistemological raison d'être)’.

Damian was particularly excited that Justine quoted me in her introduction to this session. Actually, it was great having Damian there. It was a mini break, shopping, eating and exploring a location new to him, in a way that was similar to NY or a further critique emulating the blog.

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Last night was Brisbane’s first official Pecha Kucha and it was literally packed to the rafters. Every since I last returned from New York, everyone has been talking about the lack of discussion; talking about the need to talk.

Volume one was some-what formal. A couple of speakers read from pre-prepared notes and everyone talked me-me-me. My understanding of pecha-cha is that one of its real strengths has been that it provides a forum to talk more broadly about research and practice focuses. For example, in Melbourne Mark Dytham (pecha-cha guy) presented his obscure documentation of various kit-kat wrappings. So as an observer, you start to piece together what an individual is informed by, make connections and comparisons. Even more importantly, he was entertaining.

While strong completed concepts are interesting enough, people really responded to the less serious concepts and experimentation, like bubble machines. Once the topic reverted to the more staid practice the interest dwindled, until a bubble machine was re-introduced. Hopefully presenters in the future will pick-up on this overwhelming audience response and aim to be a little less earnest.

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The organisation undertook a workshop with coop yesterday to speculate on possible resolutions of the store in relation to the gallery. The entrance was identified as a significant issue and how one initially encounters the space. Importantly, it was realised that the reflections of the windows gave the impression that the gallery and store is closed. Step 1, immediately order additional lighting in time for the next install. So, the workshop identified these kinds of issues, speculated and imagined the space as a blank canvas, starting from scratch. In many respects, the workshop drawings tended to favour the gallery, in that they claimed additional space and allowed flexibility. It was particularly interesting that the resulting proposals were so similar.

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Virginia with Untitled piece, 2007. Photo: A. Higgins., originally uploaded by valleygirl2005.

Yesterday was really fun when women of the Hermannsburg Potters Group dropped in for a discussion about works in the exhibition. The casualness was perhaps a little awkward at first, but after the audience left, each one individual pulled me aside to identify and tell me about each of their works. In addition to processes, we ended up talking about all sorts of things including fashion and shopping. Amid an impromptu photo shoot, which was really fun. They were all so cheeky and cute, posing alongside each of their works, not-to-mention the jokes.

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Just back from my first visit to Darwin for the Contemporary Craft and Design Curators Meeting representing artisan (formerly Craft Queensland). After managing the 4/5 hour flight, a disorganised check-in, whistling construction workers (who still does that??), the shock of first encountering the tiled bedroom that’s literally also the bathroom and suspiciously questioning the reasoning behind this design choice, I was eventually able to close my eyes and recover. It’s so weird visiting somewhere new in my own country. Things, the general landscapes, were similar, but not quite the same. Obviously.

Aside from that, it was all very interesting. Everybody’s working on interesting projects. And a number of issues I’ve been interested in further exploring and advocating for since New York, are similarly being focused on by others, which was really nice to hear. We also had lots of laughs. There was a late night excursion to Ducks Nuts and another to Bullocks Point at Fannie Bay, where I must admit we were terribly clichéd curators all in black, but completely out of context at the beach.