Curating the West
What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to and why?
I’m really excited about the opening of the O’keeffe Welcome Center located near Georgia O’keeffe’s home and studio in Abiquiú, New Mexico. The center will serve as an orientation space for people taking O’keeffe tours, but we are also designing the experience to serve as a gateway to explore and become inspired by the amazing landscapes, just as O’keeffe was. It will also serve as a community resource with a beautiful light-filled classroom. I’m intrigued for us to learn, experiment and iterate to make this a vibrant and welcoming place for everyone.
What are you reading?
Because I’m fairly new to the O’keeffe, I’m spending a lot of time with books about her and her work. I’m especially enjoying the beautifully done Georgia O’keeffe: Living Modern by Wanda M. Corn. By my bedside is the Poesia Completa of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca and a random Edgar Allan Poe compilation borrowed from one of those cute little roadside free library boxes.
Interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently.
I’m going to be so normal here: I got to see the Yayoi Kusama show with her paintings, sculptures and infinity rooms at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. I love her fanciful approach to re-creating reality, how her work has been consistent to concept over so many years, and how the viewer is often represented (through the mirrors in infinity rooms, by placing dots in the Oblivion Room, etc.) In the past couple years I’ve also been able to experience multiple installations of Ragnar Kjartansson’s multichannel video installation The Visitors. It’s a powerful and mesmerizing work.
What are you researching at the moment?
As the curator of digital experience, I have one foot in the world of making experiences and one in facilitating access to information. So, my current deep dive focuses on exposing and linking information from our museum, archives and library collections with other related information across the world—building a better tool for researchers and others to make new discoveries. I’m thinking about how data visualization and machine learning can reveal hidden connections and create new knowledge.
What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?
Oh my, I have so many ideas! Let’s pick one unrelated to O’keeffe. I make technology enhanced clothing in my own artistic practice—so I’d want to further explore artists melding traditional fiber and construction practices with sensors, lights, data, etc. I was super inspired by the huge fiber sculptures in the fantastic show at Los Angeles’ Hauser Wirth & Schimmel a few years ago: Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947-2016. I would love to take that idea forward— contemporary, many-cultural, immersive and technology enhanced fiber work installations. Yeah, that would be fun.