Qiming Yang

Curating Contemporary Art (MA)

About

Qiming Yang is a curator and graphic designer based in London and China. She holds a BA in Graphic and Media Design from London College of Communication, UAL. Her current research explores the slow mode of curating with an emphasis on care, process and collaboration and how it could facilitate deeper connections.

“Slow is not about time per se, but about connection.”

This quote by Dr. Megan Arney Johnston shows the core of what she proposed the slow curating working framework in 2009 which encourages curators to slow down to make deeper connections with audiences and the local context. Inspired by Johnston, I am interested in exploring the notion of slowness in curatorial practices. Building on established literature from the etymological interpretation of curating as caring, the discourse of the curatorial, and the slow curating framework, I attempt to develop my own understanding and interpretation of a slowed curatorial practice where slowness, care, and connection are interrelated through iterative processes in a triangular form. In other words, if this slowness is about connections, then it is often that care and being careful are essential aspects for making deeper connections whilst taking care usually needs more time that becomes slow.

The curatorial process is important to this slow mode of curating as it acts not only as a bridge between the triangular interrelationship but also as an essential criterion for evaluation. The success of slow curating is not to be assessed solely on the final presentation but together with its curatorial processes through aspects of caring and abilities to create deeper connections. In this way, what is usually considered the result such as an exhibition may act as a starting point for slow curating to continue to grow, emphasizing its iterative processes, challenging the temporality of curating, and responding to notions of care and connection.

I am also interested in researching and practising alternative and transdisciplinary ways of slow curating that could speak to a wider range of audiences outside of the art industry, and more equal and non-hierarchical methods of fostering care, experiences, and connections with people and their surroundings over time. With the various modalities slow curating could facilitate such as conversations, workshops, exhibitions, and other kinds of encounters and gatherings like sharing space and doing housework together, a slower, more cared and connected curatorial practice could be realized.

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