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Jade Doskow curated Unraveling Identities at Broadway Gallery in February.
Akiko Kikuchi, Balance, 2008. Video installation. Two-way mirror with wood base, video installations, Dimensions Variable. Courtesy of the artist.I had always thought about curating a show at some point, but until this year was a bit intimidated by the idea of it, suspecting that perhaps there was some secret way of going about it known only to a select few. Then, on a whim, I had an idea for a show. I decided, why not? I’m going to give this mysterious art of curating a try.
Being an artist myself, it naturally included several colleague’s work as well as my own. The more I thought about it, the more the work seemed to present a very solid concept—that of globalization and the idea of non-identity.
I decided to ask Arturo Soto, a colleague of mine, to co-curate, as I realized my own tendency to take on too much work concurrently. With Arturo’s help, we came up with the lineup for the show, including two video artists and six photographers, all examining a realm of concepts within the framework of globalization and identity, including portraiture, landscape, architecture, and crowd mentality.
It was a fun challenge coming up with the name for the show; ultimately I arrived at “Unraveling Identities,” which felt as provocative and telling as the artists whose work would be in the show. Next was selecting the pieces from each of the artists; Arturo and I frequently butted heads, but ultimately the work fit together very dynamically.
The most immediately striking piece in the show was the video work of Akiko Kikuchi, projected in an elegant mirrored box on the floor. Kikuchi’s work is highly graphic—black and white—and this particular piece examines clusters of people separating and re-integrating into a crowd formation. The mirrored installation box created multiple dimensions in a fishbowl effect, multiplying the figures walking and clustering, disappearing, and reappearing.
Around Kikuchi’s work hung groupings of dynamic photographs, including that of myself, Arturo Soto, Bryan Lear, and Chris Rodriguez, whose impressive, large format architectural examination was the visual lynchpin of the entire exhibit. The sense of “identity” examination was extremely subjective in each artist’s work. Bryan Lear presented subtle photographs of the over-landscaped American environment. Arturo Soto muddies the identities of loved ones in a photographic preparation for death. My own current project depicts the sites of where World’s Fairs have taken place, and if the architecture still exists, how it interacts in an unforeseen, contemporary environment. Opposite this wall were the video work of Bok-soon Lee, and the photography of Sarah Palmer, and Erica Allen. Lee’s ethereal, philosophical video/performance piece was a poetic take on gender, identity, and death. Palmer’s ambiguous, David Lynch-like interiors and Erica Allen’s arresting composite portraits reiterated the idea that identity is a fully constructed notion and can never really be pinpointed.
Ultimately the show opening was a great success; close to 400 people came to celebrate and see the art. I think curating is a beautiful and fluid process, and hope to work on many more projects in the future. Secret no more!
