The fringes publications on art: curatorial intersections of practices

van Noord, Gerrie (2021) The fringes publications on art: curatorial intersections of practices. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

Abstract

We encounter a lot of information on art and curatorial projects through a wide variety of publications –from text-and image-heavy printed objects to, more recently, seemingly ephemeral digital formats. Despite publications’ ubiquity, their contributions to the fields of art and curating have remained underexplored. This enquiry positions publications on art first and foremost in relation to contemporary curatorial practice and discourse, specifically in relation to ideas of ‘the curatorial’. Although defined as a mode of working that relies on processes of collaboration and co-production by a potentially expansive range of actors and agents, in much of the literature the focus has remained on temporal and hierarchical sequences of (inter)actions among artists, curators and audiences. Taking an Actor-Network-Theory approach, I consider how the enduring perception of publications on art as mainly means of mediation and dissemination of information about art and/or curatorial projects belies their central role in the field. Using a series of examples that I was involved in as an editor, I consider publications as spaces of display, look at persistent singular notions of original and source –via ideas of mediation and translation –and hierarchy –via understandings of collaboration and authorship. Publications on art are here put forward as much more than assemblages of secondary information and are situated as complex manifestations of the convergence of multiple practices –involving human as well as non-human entities –through which something new is articulated collectively. Eventually drawing on ideas from thinkers such as Isabelle Stengers and Karen Barad, I argue that publications on art can help us think through expanded notions of agency in ‘the curatorial’, and demonstrate how an expanded understanding of ‘the curatorial’ can help us read publications on art as inclusive constellations that counter persistent ideas around value and hierarchy.

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