Alice in Wonderland at Tate Liverpool.

A black line. I nearly didn’t notice it. My sense of location in the exhibition shifted dramatically when I understood. This line demonstrates the height to which Alice grew. Consequently, in that moment, I shrank. Already I understood from the other works in this first room that I was somehow ‘in’ the text. However it was through Mel Bockner’s Measurement: Eye level Perimeter (ask Alice) that my sense of my own place and size as viewer shifted again. A very clever curation of works introduced me to the exhibition ‘Alice in Wonderland through the Visual Arts’.

More aware of the nature of my body within the space of the gallery, I climbed the stairs, looking forward to the next part of this exhibition which examines the influence of Alice in Wonderland on the visual arts. Extracts of text on the walls of the stairs took the form of concrete poetry written in perspective. Milder perceptual shifts, but again a clever conceit; a nod to the textual play in the book itself and a continuation of the slight disorientation of space and surface.

Reaching the fourth floor and the exhibition’s main focus, the effects of this hodological disorientation are allowed to disappear, this part of the exhibition reverts to a ‘glass case and pictures on the wall’ survey of material relating to Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and the Liddell sisters. The dark red wall colour and drapes though, hint at a theatrical and Victorian interior space, entirely appropriate for the displays of early copies of Alice, the original manuscript, photographs of the Liddell sisters and a wealth of Alice ephemera. As you progress through the labyrinthine space, the walls pale, and works become more recent; arranged in themes such as ‘Alice from the 1960’s’, ‘Alice Revisited’ and ‘Storytelling and Time’.

The analogy of being lost in time and space could continue, given that the exhibition is such a comprehensive survey of Alice related material, it requires a level of attention where ones experience of time slows. This though, was perhaps more a result of spending so long with such a variety of material rather than being the result of a curatorial device. However the catalogue ends by suggesting (referencing the authorhsip texts of Barthes and Foucault) that the power of the book lies in the fact that:

a reference to Alice can always be legitimately claimed whenever we, as the viewer, be it museum visitor, art critic, or exhibition curator, discern one and declare it to be so.

Containing works stretching from the original manuscript to recent works by Dan Graham, Gary Hill and Annelise Strba, the exhibition succeeded in not only developing, for me, a much deeper understanding of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as ‘gesamtkunstwerk’ but also the extent to which this story has become embedded in our consciousness. It introduced me to new ways of looking at works I was already familiar with, and showed me a range of work I had not encountered before. Alice in Wonderland runs at the Tate in Liverpool until 25 January 2012; I can thoroughly recommend it.

Call for Papers - World Economic History Congress

CALL FOR PAPERS

XVI^th World Economic History Congress

9^th-13^th July 2012

University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa

Encountering the ‘exotic’: the collecting, trade and exchange of exotic goods between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, from the 16^th century to 21^st century.

The encounter between travellers, merchants and explorers and the exchange of the ‘exotic’ acted as a diverse catalyst for cultural practices, innovation, technological change and economic generation. This session will explore the circulation, assimilation and appropriation of exotic and foreign goods as they are transported, translated, collected and exchanged between diverse cultures from the 16^th century to the present day.

Thinking about ‘exotic’ goods invites us to pay attention to the role and function of the ‘exotic’ in different scales – across national boundaries, countries and cities; and in different spaces – in the public and the private domain – as well as the relationships between the places of consumption and the places of origin. This session aims to explore the influence of the encounter with all kinds of ‘exotic’ goods, from ritual objects, to artworks, from objects for the domestic interior, to technological, scientific and military objects; both newly made objects as well the old and the rare. By taking a broad time frame we hope to better understand the mutations of the exchange, collection, trade, display and production and consumption of ‘exotic’ goods and how these encounters influenced broader transnational and transcultural economic change.

The session aims to explore these exchanges both in terms of the perspective of the Western encounter with the ‘Other’ (the West’s appropriation, adaption and translation of the ‘exotic’), and from the perspective of the ‘Other’s’ encounter with the West (how the encounter impacted upon and stimulated economic activities in Asia, Africa and the Americas). The nature and status of ‘exotic’ goods are multiple and complex, as is the nature and status of the ‘exotic’ as it changed through time and space. In our increasingly complex world of exchange, tourism, and migration, the encounter with ‘exotic’ goods may be decreasing, but as a catalyst for the imagination the ‘exotic’ still has a profound impact upon economic activity and practices.

We invite papers to explore these themes and relationships from a wide range of perspectives:

-On the marketplace actors – the travellers, explorers, merchants, scientists, artists, curiosity dealers, collectors, soldiers.

-On the biographies of the ‘exotic’ objects themselves – ritual objects, domestic and luxury goods such as porcelain and lacquer, new technologies such as clocks and maps.

-On the spaces of exchange – market-places, auctions, shops.

-On the spaces of exhibition and display – institutions such as museums, public exhibitions and galleries, to the display in the domestic interior.

Please send abstracts of no more than 400 words to the session organisers:

Dr Manuel Charpy (CNRS France/University of Lille IRHIS) manuel.charpy@wanadoo.fr and Dr Mark Westgarth (School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds) m.w.westgarth@leeds.ac.uk

Closing Date for Abstracts: 15^th February 2012

Level One Trip to Temple Newsam

Level One Country House & Museum Studies students again braved the cold to visit Temple Newsam last Thursday, thank you to all who attended. I look forward to reading the essays of those who choose to compare and contrast the presentation of this house with a National Trust or English Heritage property, it should result in some really interesting work.

Students making their way to visit the cute farm animals considering the repurposed estate buildings in context!

Performativity in the Gallery - Call for papers for the next AAH conference

CALL FOR PAPERS: Performativity in the Gallery: Staging Interactive Encounters

Museum & Exhibitions Members’ Group Annual Session, the Association of Art Historians
38th Annual AAH Conference & Bookfair

Department of History of Art, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA
29 - 31 March 2012

This session explores participation, liveness, interactivity, process-based performative practices and performance for the camera in interdisciplinary practices, presented in visual arts gallery spaces. Live art and other multi-art form works that combine visual arts with performing arts such as dance and physical theatre have an intricate relationship with the canon of art history. Art history has been wary of live art’s tendency to encourage increased formal and conceptual risk-taking and its interdisciplinary nature. Time-based performances have also challenged the conventions of documentation and the viewer’s access to the art experience. A live art practitioner has yet to win the Turner Prize.

The session is particularly interested in new research analysing the intricate relationship between art history, live and performing arts and museum and gallery space; what it means to present, curate and create interdisciplinary performative work for gallery spaces. The Museums & Exhibitions Members’ Group invites papers from a wide range of practitioners, including art historians, curators and artists, to consider performativity in gallery spaces across all historic and contemporary periods.

The 2012 AAH Annual Conference will showcase the diversity and richness of art history in the UK and globally over an extensive chronological range. Like The Open University itself, AAH2012 is open to all people, places and ideas. This three-day event will present a broad scope of geographies and methodologies, ranging from object-based studies, socio-historical analyses, theoretical discourses, visual culture of the moving image, exhibition cultures and display. Sessions and papers will reflect the composition of the wide constituency that is art history today. Further conference info & fees: http://www.aah.org.uk/page/3327

If you would like to propose a paper, please email the session convenors directly. Please submit an abstract of your proposed paper in no more than 250 words, your name and institutional affiliation (if you have one). You will receive acknowledgement of receipt of your submission within two weeks. Please read the Conditions of Submission at: http://www.aah.org.uk/media/docs/Code%20of%20Practice%20-%20sessions_AAH2011.pdf

Session Convenors:
Dr Outi Remes, South Hill Park Arts Centre, outi.remes@southhillpark.org.uk
Dr Marika Leino, Christie’s Education mleino@christies.com

Deadline for submissions: 7 November 2011.

Merchants of Modernism talk by Mark

Hope those of you involved in the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery displays have recovered from all the relentless hard work? Congratulations again on your achievement!

Coming soon, a free talk that might interest students of Museum Studies...by one of your favourite lecturers!


'Merchants of Modernism: Dealers, Exhibitions and the promotion of the avant-garde, 1900-1939' - Talk by Dr. Mark Westgarth
Saturday, 12 November 2011, 3pm

The rise in the interest in the avant-garde is a story that mirrors the evolving conditions of modernity in the early 20th century. New kinds of dealers and new commercial art galleries disseminated avant-garde artworks to a metropolitan public through innovative exhibition strategies, new marketing techniques and the professional practices of the modern art dealer. Focusing on some of the most significant art dealers in the period, including Paul Durand-Ruel and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and some high profile exhibitions at galleries such as Grafton Galleries, Reid & Lefevre, Leicester Galleries, this introductory talk maps the evolution of the modern art market at a critical moment in its development.

Free event, all welcome. No booking necessary.

Find us at:The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery
Parkinson Building
Woodhouse Lane
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT

Telephone: 0113 343 2778
Fax: 0113 343 5561 (Please mark for the attention of the Art Gallery)
Email: gallery@leeds.ac.uk
Gallery blog: https://elgg.leeds.ac.uk/burton/weblog/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stanley-and-Audrey-Burton-Gallery/170745069618675
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sabgallery

Display at the Henry Moore Institute Library

I just wanted to publicise a small display I’ve curated at the Henry Moore Institute Library entitled 'A Revelation of Unexpected Associations: J.G. Ballard, Eduardo Paolozzi and Helen Chadwick in Ambit'. It’s about the art and literature journal Ambit and the contributions of the writer J.G. Ballard and the artists Helen Chadwick and Eduardo Paolozzi. Please see the link below for further info:

http://www.henry-moore.org//hmi/library/on-display1/a-revelation-of-unexpected-associations

It’s running until the 25th November 2011. Please visit if you get a chance!

Liz (ex MA student, Art Gallery and Museum Studies)

MA Art Gallery Students Exhibition Projects

The current cohort of postgraduate museum studies students completed installation of their exhibition projects at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Art Gallery last week.  They were very busy in the planning processes...and with almost 30 students, and just two groups, the management of responsibilities was quite a challenge...one that they all overcame brilliantly I may add!

Both Exhibitions Opened on 17th October, and you can see their excellent efforts until 10th December 2011....do pop along!

Exhibition Title Panel

Group A, decided to work with the Gallery ceramics collections, and produced a fabulous exhibition theme - 'Fancy a Brew'? 18th century drinking cultures'.....

MA Students preparing their exhibition

They worked hard of selecting the objects and working up a theme...as you can see....

Don't drop it!

       

    

                                         

The other Student Group also produced a fabulous exhibition - this time using paintings, prints, books and associated ephemera from the Bloomsbury Group...both from the Art Gallery holdings, and material from the University Brotherton Library Special Collections.... Their exhibition is entitled: 'Connecting Lives: Intimate Artworks of the Bloomsbury Group'......and they were equally animated in their preparations...

Preparing Exhibitions

Group Discussions

 .........and the project meetings were very professional....as you can see!

Well Done to all the Students!...Fantastic Work!
.......Mark