Working Interdependently

RACHEL BOTHA OUTLINES RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN HER CURATORIAL PRACTICE.

HOW DO YOU become a curator? How does a curator see your work? These are frequent questions in the regular mentoring sessions I have with members of The Douglas Hyde Gallery’s Student Forum. Talking to the participants brings me back to that time of uncertainty after college. I remember knowing that I wanted to work in the arts but had no idea what I wanted to do.

Your circumstances, at a certain time, determine the opportunities you can avail of. I was on the dole when unpaid internships were rampant, and it was the only way to gain any gallery experience – those days are hopefully behind us. Part-time arts-related work in Poetry Ireland and Fire Station Artists’ Studios gave important insights into the officebased and organisational aspects of the arts sector. I met real poets and artists in these positions, chatting in the canteen about looming deadlines and the pressures of working on a publication or exhibition – everyone was very busy. I am very thankful for these entry positions into arts organisations, but I knew that I wanted to do something more creative. I was also aware that I could be very easily lured in by even a sliver of stability in Dublin.

So I signed up for a two-year directorship at Catalyst Arts, an artist-led organisation in Belfast. It’s been an absolute whirlwind, and anything seems possible when working with a team who are so passionate and ambitious. That said, this year we’ve been having serious discussions about worklife balance and the impact of running a busy programme – conversations which relate to the arts sector as a whole. This issue of perpetual ‘busyness’ only really came to light when we were forced to stop. Talking to colleagues, friends and peers about the harsh reality of working in the arts and the lack of infrastructure for care demonstrates a precarity that leaves the arts community anxious, exhausted and competitive. So how can we create an arts sector that we want to work in? What change and support is needed?

The Provost’s Curatorial Fellowship is an opportunity for a Trinity graduate of the last five years. I am acutely aware of the privilege of this position – I receive a salary, which means I have financial stability for twelve months. It is crucial for me to use this precious time to explore, understand and adhere to the values I wish to embed in my practice. My self-directed research focuses on the concept of interdependence and working collaboratively in terms of the artist curator relationship. I am understanding this from the broader context of ‘the commons’, in building a resilient and sustainable human network. The exhibition, ‘Common or Garden’ at Catalyst Arts – Leah’s Corbett’s Director Show – has grounded this thinking and sparked further research. I have enrolled in online courses such as ‘Contradictions of Capital, Curating, and Care’ with Sascia Bailer at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and ‘Art as Politics!’ with Maria Hlavajova, the director of BAK in Utrecht. I am taking an enquiry-led, conversation-driven research approach and interviewing artists and curators. The findings will be collated in a small publication, kindly funded by ArtLinks, Kilkenny County Council Arts Office.

Undertaking the Emerging Curator in Residence programme at the Kilkenny Arts Office was a unique opportunity for me to curate a series of exhibitions in my hometown. I felt a real sense of pride about this residency; it was a rare chance for my family to see what I actually do, as opposed to hearing about how busy I am. However, I was also quite nervous about returning to a place that I know but have fallen out of sync with. Ian Maleney’s book of essays, Minor Monuments, talks about the experience of becoming a ‘voyeur’ in your own hometown – when you leave and return, you don’t always see the place in the same way.

The residency was supposed to be six months but ended up spanning a year, with the artists and I benefitting from a fallow period of research and review. A solo exhibition with local artist Robert Dunne, titled ‘(the site + ruin)’, ran from 10 April to 1 May. Due to restrictions, the exhibition could only be engaged through the windows of 76-77 John Street Lower, but in the end, this suited the concept. Robert is drawn to the in-between spaces; take for example the vacant shops on High Street that are a part of the city but not in use. Kilkenny identifies strongly with its history, yet at the same time, a city has to function as a place to live. This creates a duality of experience; the charm and beauty of the historical juxtaposes with the lived experience of mundane routine. Robert’s work examines the development of the city witnessed through its architecture, from the exposed foundations of the city walls to the chronological layers of building. Through a process of extracting the familiar and reinterpreting this materially, he questions our imprint and demands on a city over time.

‘The limits of my language’ was an exhibition with invited artists Chloe Brenan, Elaine Grainger and Johanna Nulty. With a strong dialogue between the practices through respective mediums of form, sound and film, they each attempt to articulate tacit knowledge, haptic memory and subconscious experience. Working with the artists over the year (and after continuous postponing) it became crucial for the work to be installed in the space, for it to exist beyond the studio and to be shared with the public in some form. However, this exhibition of newly commissioned artworks was simply realised and documented in the Kilkenny Arts Office Gallery, with Elaine Grainger’s work left to be engaged through the windows of 76-77 John Street Lower until Sunday 23 May. In response to this, a souvenir was collaboratively produced with writer Michaela Nash and designers Models & Constructs, to be posted out in an effort to emulate the exhibition experience in printed matter.

Over the past year, I have been very fortunate to receive a number of opportunities that have been significant to my career development. Although outcomes have had to be reimagined and adapted because of the circumstances of the pandemic, I have had the immense pleasure to work with amazing artists and practitioners over an extended period of time. I am so grateful for this, and I hope to continue working in a slower and more interdependent ways in the future.

Rachel Botha is the Provost’s Curatorial Fellow at The Douglas Hyde Gallery and a Director at Catalyst Arts, Belfast.