Aporia: a room for dwelling and doubt

ABSTRACT

This project narrates the origins and development of a mixed-media art installation which was designed to allow for an exploration of diverse and eclectic representations of conflict as selected by the artist. The installation is a site of enquiry in which the artist creatively tests and acknowledges ideas which she has encountered from a range of academic fields including history, international relations, art and archaeology. Academic reflections on conflict are considered in tandem with the artist’s personal connections to it through family archives.

The installation, as an art object, will be exhibited in a gallery setting. The aim of this project is to offer an insight into the artistic methods used to research current and historical conflicts and to show how this research impacts on the artwork. Cultural encounters are often experienced by the viewer only at the end of an unseen production process. If museums, memorials, and exhibitions are understood as sites through which an audience can encounter curated or staged representations of conflict, then questions arise regarding the curation and staging. What is included in an exhibit does not allow for a consideration of what was left out and why.

Using documentary photographs of the work in progress as well as sketchbook drawings and notes, this project will provide an example of a personal (as opposed to civic) curation of conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• art
• conflict
• curation
• exhibition
• international relations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. And This Too at Platform Arts Belfast, November 2017, featured work by Sean Campbell, Jill Gibbon, Brendan Jamison, Ciaran Magill, Mark Revels, Gail Ritchie and David Turner. For more information visit http://platformartsbelfast.com/project/and-this-too/ and www.gailritchie.com/2017

2. This work was supported by the Arts Council Northern Ireland Support for Individual Artists Programme.