David Tomlinson

About

‘Write and record everything that you do;

no one is going to write our histories for us…’

Ajamu X, 2014

My name is David Tomlinson and I am a curator and writer.

My research at RCA has led to my current independent curatorial practice at www.thehush.co.uk

I am primarily interested in lost or repressed narrative and processes of emergence. In both my academic research and curatorial practice I  ask: What happens if an individual or group stops waiting for common permissions of politics, funding or zeitgeist and takes direct action against a narrative they disagree with or have been ignored by?

Throughout my RCA Curating Contemporary Art MA, I drew on my past experiences as a published writer (magazine articles, series books for schools, online publications) and as an educator (teacher, school leader, speaker, guide and presenter) in both the UK and Nigeria with VSO, Confucius Institute, Tate Britain, the British Museum and the BBC.

My RCA group exhibition, ‘The Enigma of Arrival’, was an exploration of moments in diasporic experience and identity, inspired by the novel of the same name by V.S. Naipaul. Through the commissioning of new works by Joshua Woolford, Rieko Whitfield and Duong Thuy Nguyen I gained further experience of project proposal, research, ethical curation and the practicalities of exhibition making.

Aside from collaborative curation, I am developing my individual curatorial practice through a series of project proposals to reQueer spaces of historical significance. I believe that commissioning contemporary artists more boldly can give us the vocabulary that is necessary to enable fresh debate and thinking.

My independent curatorial practice includes leading on a 200-participant inner-London community project ‘Time/Place/People: Now, Here, Us’ (Westminster CC, London) and collaborating as part of the curatorial team  for ‘Ripples’ (LADRA Collective, Hypha Studios, London), a multi-disciplinary exploration of colonialisation.

• I see curation as key to creating the conditions necessary for artists to explore freely. 
• I am an ethical and political curator working with artists to ensure their work is seen, heard and acted on.

RCA gave me the opportunity to work very closely with artists. Taking our starting point from museum artefacts snatched from their country of origin, carved with serial numbers and displayed without critique (a beakless bird, a stone leopard, a creature from legend), I worked on a project to create a three-part zine with artists, designers and writers which explored transnational coded language. From pre-colonial Quipus to working-class Mee-Maw to the lost Queer language of Polari: my work always has a political point.

• Post-RCA, I am focusing on generating curatorial and writing projects by establishing the hush www.thehush.co.uk , an independent creative practice.
• Through the hush, I aim to work in partnership with a wide variety of artists, writers, curators and organisations to create conditions where the hidden voice is heard.

‘The one duty we have to history is to rewrite it…’

Oscar Wilde, 1893