Having spent some time discussing the different pieces, and noticing which were the most obscure and intriguing, we considered the accessibility of art and whether we ‘get it’. We decided to curate an exhibition called ‘I Don’t Get It’.
We started by eliminating more traditional, classic pieces such as landscapes that did not match our theme of absurdity. Then we looked at which were the most obscure, and Jesse Wine’s I Don’t Normally SMS Women (2012) stood out, simply because we had lots of different ideas about what the sculpture resembled and there was an almost unanimous decision that we did not get it. The name of the piece was also very intriguing.
Our target demographic is people who do not usually visit galleries, and we aim to draw them in through the title of our exhibition, since it is so self-explanatory and simple. We would like to locate the exhibition in a place not typically associated with art, such as on a train, to escape the stigma that art is inaccessible and has an inherent grandeur.
We discussed the issues surrounding making our exhibition offensive, either to the artists or to the audience. We don’t want to patronise our visitors orand presume asuggest that lack of cultural understanding, and we simultaneously do not want to suggest to artists that their work is pointless or impenetrable. We want to pose questions about exhibitions and galleries themselves, to demonstrate that it is their intimidating, quiet aura that makes art feel overly profound and prestigious. It’s not the ‘fault’ of the art.