WHAT DOES THIS COLLECTIVE MEAN TO YOU? And/or,
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT/URGENT TO YOU?
Welcome to the first post of C3 Curatorial collective! As a kickstart to blogging on our collective website, we asked each of our members, the above questions, and here are their responses.
Ridzal: Because, why not!...
Sor Luan: It is good to know the thoughts of the people in the arts community and I see this collective as a platform to do so. It is a way to be inspired by people coming from different backgrounds, bouncing ideas around and seeing how it all works out.
Celeste: We are stronger together.
Ray: To begin the habit of sharing in the arts and creative industry. The collective encourages active exchange with great minds alike yet embracing the individuality of each member. It offers an expansion of personal interests and execution of personal interests by a group effort. It makes visible, the unknown and minimises the undoable.
Tian: Because not all of us aspire to be or will end up being a curator or professional in the art field after our graduation from MSCP, yet we are all bound by a common desire to pursue curatorial activities. By curatorial activities, this goes beyond mounting exhibitions and includes reading sessions, art talks, writing and curatorial research. This collective allows us to do so with other like-minded people who could complement one another in areas where individually, we might be lacking in. And, if not now, then when?!
Juraimy: As practitioners in the curatorial (a) without antecedent practices within established networks of curatorship or (b) without prior institutional links, we will stand to benefit as we come together to leverage the diverse talents availed to us through the approach of collaboration and peer support to further hone our curatorial instincts and develop both our personal and professional endeavors. We are passionate about the prospects of learning and creating possibilities that such sharing and/or exchange sparks.
Ju-Lyn: Because there are things that are just better to do together.
Adrian: Being in the National Archives, I’ve seen that oral history and archives have the power to shape the narratives of history and how they give a voice to different communities in Singapore. Joining this collective is special to me as it provides me with different perspectives and helps me to experience, connect with and capture the possible stories narrated through projects undertaken by the collective. I see this collective as bringing hope and igniting collaboration through shared resources.
Yan Ni: The collective can be used to expand dialogue and discourse with the presentation of new or under-represented artists/artworks/projects; to voice the unvoiced, to present the under-represented. The collective can be used to explore my personal interests in aboriginal arts and culture, Chinese arts and culture, decorative arts and material culture, local history, community history, oral history, social history of Chinese immigrants.
Bernice: In this collective we are allowed to be completely transparent and thus, free.
We also asked the members the following question:
TO YOU, WHAT DO THE 3 CS IN OUR COLLECTIVE NAME (C3 CURATORIAL) STAND FOR?
Ridzal: Coffee, Cake, Conversations?
Sor Luan: Content, Creation, Care
Celeste: Collaborating. Collecting. Connecting
Ray: Curate, Create, Care
Tian: Collab, Curate, Create
Juraimy: Committed Collegial Co-construction
Ju-Lyn: c___, c______, c___
Bernice: Collab, Collate, Converse
Not every member was able to respond in time for this post, but the responses so far encapsulate our ideas for the collective. Indeed, C3 Curatorial is based on the premise of camaraderie, and when we come together, how can we not have coffee, cake and conversations?! As you can tell already, with Ridzal in our collective, there will be no lack of fun while we embark on some real, serious stuff. Juraimy, by the way, is the educator among us, and he loves employing alliteration in his speech. We’d be sure to hear more of his pensive prose poetry in the course of our constructive collective conversations.
In the coming one to two weeks, we will be having our first official meet-up following the confirmation of our collective name. The tentative date has been set on May 1. This will be a time of celebration, not just for the formation of C3 Curatorial, but also for the end of our MSCP classes. With the exception of Ridzal (who is a PhD student at NTU ADM), we are all Masters students of the Museum Studies and Curatorial Practice (MSCP) course at NTU ADM (Arts, Design and Media) and finally, we would have submitted all our final papers, although we still have dissertations or a ten-week internship to complete.
During this meeting, we will also discuss and prioritise our wish list of curatorial activities. A few have already been identified along the way: reading together some article or a book that we’d come across during our course but have not had the time to read; writing about Minimalism (the exhibition at NGS or the movement in general) in relation to Derrida’s erasure/deconstruction theory, Spivak’s mistranslation concept PLUS Edward Said’s Travelling Theory; a possible exhibition conceptualised by one of our MSCP classmates.
Exciting times ahead!