Jennifer Sandoval- MA Contemporary Curating
Curatorial Activism
My name is Jennifer studying MA in Contemporary Curating. My thesis of Curatorial Activism revolved around institutional critique, challenging the neutraility role curators take in the art field, producing inclusivity and value to marginalized groups that are excluded in Western galleries due to their artwork or the artist themselves. My work is giving spaces to marginalized voices within the cultural institutions, whose experiences are overlooked, and how curatorial decisions can either reinforce or disrupt these structures. Instead of treating the exhibition as a neutral space, I am interested in how exhibtions can create opportunities for reflection, dialogue and participation.
Audience engagement is also central to my practice. I am interested in what happens when audiences are not placed as observers, but become part of the conditions through which an exhibition is experienced and understood. This has led me to explore participatory, performative, and socially engaged approaches, including the use of ambiguity, absence, and subtle forms of interaction that encourage audiences to question their own position within an artwork or exhibition.
My current practice explores themes including othering, erasure, violence, cultural, consumption and collective responsibility. I am particularly interested in the tension between witnessing and action: what it means to encounter difficult subjects through art, and what responsibility, if any, accompanies that encounter.
For my future prospects, I hope to develop a curatorial practice that is reflective, socially responsive and willing to question established structures. I am interested in working collaboratively with artists and communities to create exhibitions and projects that do not just bring ideas, but encourage audiences to actively reconsider their relationships to them.
My curatorial work to date includes Luminarium at Saan1, and La Niña Que No es Nada at SeeSaw.
Artists in order: Charmagne Coble, Nabeel Ijaz, Mohammed Meghraoua
