Dear Áine and Kasia,
Thanks to you both for your fascinating papers. I was really struck – in both of your presentations – by your brief evocation of the emotional labour of the staff involved in the Blitz and the Museum of Free Derry projects. Can you tell me a little more about this aspect of your respective projects – how have you accessed and processed this material in your own research? Thanks again to both of you – I learnt a lot!
Claire
Dear Aine, many thanks for you so sensitive presentation. Exhibiting conflicts involves so many actors that it's quite a challenge to find an appropriate display and to get the best way to "show" such historical material. Museums have to manage questions regarding memory, trauma and intimate feelings, and it must be difficult to set a relevant display. Do you study how the contemporary art exhibitions deal with this kind of issue? I especially have in mind European biennals, which regularly try to focus on current conflicts and social diseases.
Thank you for watching and for your question!
As part of my research, I am looking at an art exhibition entitled 'Troubles Art' that featured artists' responses to the Troubles. It was on display last year and this year as a travelling exhibition. There is also 'Art of the Troubles' which was on display in 2014, that originally included works featured in the recent exhibition.
I've been intrigued by the differences in interpreting and displaying the Troubles through art compared to historical artefacts and object. I am interested in exploring how this might allow different themes to arise or allow different narratives to be presented within the exhibition space and interpretation.
In terms of your thinking of European biennials - as part of my MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies, I was able to take a course on 'Critical and Curatorial Challenges in Contemporary Art' taught by Griselda Pollock which looked at Documenta. I really enjoyed this approach of using biennials (or documenta's quinquennial form) to look at exhibition histories. In my work, I specifically looked at Documenta 13, which was an interesting example to consider art and conflict, time, objects and locations, as well as themes of trauma, collapse and recovery.
Do you have thoughts on any of this?
Hello Áine,
Thank you for your sensitive and considered presentation of the Free Derry museum. Your approach felt really well-aligned with the your analysis of the museum ('the political is personal'). Your articulation of the appropriateness of sharing images from the museum that depict violence was a great example of strong ethical approach in your research process - a thought process that is important to share.
I am very interested in hearing about your PhD research. Can you say a little more about what you have found/ are looking at in terms of the representations and absences of women's narratives in these exhibitions?
You may have come across this already but I listened to an interview with Bernadette Devlin McAliskey on the Blind Boy podcast last year which was really excellent: https://play.acast.com/s/blindboy/bernadettedevlinmcaliskey
Best of luck with your research,
Enya Moore, PhD candidate, UTS Sydney (originally from County Kerry)
Dear Áine and Kasia,
Thanks to you both for your fascinating papers. I was really struck – in both of your presentations – by your brief evocation of the emotional labour of the staff involved in the Blitz and the Museum of Free Derry projects. Can you tell me a little more about this aspect of your respective projects – how have you accessed and processed this material in your own research? Thanks again to both of you – I learnt a lot!
Claire
Dear Claire @claire-w , thank you for watching and your question!
There is an ongoing question of how to access and process such material, if it exists, in my research. In keeping with the topic of 'difficult', it can be hard to access materials that reveal the difficulties staff face from a personal and emotional perspective. With the Museum of Free Derry, this was somewhat more available to see. I think is partly because they want to highlight the personal connections staff have to the content of the exhibit for authenticity. It is central to the narrative, of a community telling their story. Also, to show the ongoing negotiations and the evolving display.
With access in mind, I am going to interview practitioners involved in the designing and displaying of exhibitions, hopefully from various aspects of this process, and can hopefully develop an analysis from this.
If you have any thoughts on this or suggestions I would love to hear them!
Dear Áine, it is really interesting to reflect on how visible the design team’s emotions are in the physical exhibit they produce, and the Museum of Free Derry sounds like a fascinating case study through which to explore this. I’d be really interested to discuss these wider questions with you – my next project will look at the emotional labour of curators and other museum professionals working with challenging collections (imperialism, slavery, sexual abuse, etc) so it would be good to think through these things together at some point. Best wishes, Claire
Absolutely, I'll look forward to it and to hearing more about the project - it sounds fascinating!
Best,
Áine
@ainemckenny , Hi Aine, I precisely studied the case of Documenta in a 2015 paper dedicated to digital display, and I recently focused on the Biennale di Venezia for an upcoming article. As temporaries events, biennals and contemporary art shows can be used in a political or even a ideological way, it's particularly obvious concerning the history of Venetian exhibition, even if curators has to be involved in aesthetic studies and artistic research field. The topic is deeply fascinating, maybe you could let me know about your current research expectations on that matter.
