The Shape of Support: Distribution as Curatorial Practice

My trajectory as a curator that has allowed me to arrive at this body of research is inde­bted to extant historical models initiated by artists to circulate media predisposed
to sharing. The doctoral research I am undertaking proposes the act of distributing works by artists in the contemporary context as a critical, ethical, and sustainable curatorial practice. In doing so, it acknowledges this mode of collaboration as undertaking two separate but interconnected initiatives: establishing and maintaining a curatorial framework for a group of artists and their distributed works together, while at the same time facilitating the means for their projects to be accessed and contextualized as indi­vidual projects. Moving between exhibition contexts and the distributor on an ongoing basis, establishing their care and context becomes an ongoing cycle of commitment and a form of feedback for both the artist and the curator facilitating the reception of the work.

A twofold approach to this method of organizing with artists is essential. First, to address how the constituent artists and their work establish an evolving con­text in which the participants and their pro­jects engage. Second, there are the practical
conditions regarding care of works, communication of artist’s practices, and circula­tion of projects that the proposition of distribution entails.

This doctoral research proposes distribution as a method of organizing and circulating projects by contemporary artists that prioritizes circulation as opposed to the collections based model of museums that prioritizes preservation.