What it’s like to install an exhibit

In case you were wondering what it’s been like to install a contemporary art exhibit, wonder no more!! Here’s the inside scoop from USF.

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The installation of Indigenous Contemporary is well underway and we have been hard at work to ensure everything is in place by the opening.  It is exciting to finally have an opportunity to directly apply what we have learned in our Curatorial Practicum course in the actual installation of the exhibit.  It is one thing to discuss the artwork and choose which works will be exhibited, but it is another entirely to unpack it yourself and see it firsthand.  As our professor John Zarobell remarked, “It’s like Christmas!”

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Implementing the exhibition layout planned by the installation team has been a fascinating process.  As one might imagine, 20 people brainstorming and debating how to best display each artist’s work is both exciting and exhausting.  Curators must take account of many different factors when placing artwork including spacing, height, sequencing, and even how well separate artists’ works relate to each other.

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Mercedes Dorame Redefines Cultural Boundaries

As some of you may know, I’m currently a Museum Studies graduate student at the University of San Francisco. This semester, I’m part of a wonderful group of people curating a contemporary Native art exhibition titled “Interwoven: Indigenous Contemporary.” I’m on the PR/Marketing team, and we’ve created an external exhibition website, and this is one of the inaugural posts written by my team member Morgan Schlesinger . I’ll continue to reblog them, or you can get them from the source!!

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A native of Los Angeles, Mercedes Dorame is a photographer whose work challenges ideas of cultural construction.  Mercedes has shown her work internationally and has recently had her work acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Additionally, she has been featured in publications such as 580 Split and News From Native California. Her experience working on archaeological sites has ha a huge influence on her work.  As a member of the Gabrielino Tongva tribe, Mercedes has been deeply affected by how archaeological excavation requires interaction with objects that have been disconnected from their original meaning and context.

Mercedes Dorame, 2013 Facing Storms, Mercedes Dorame, 2013

Mercedes Dorame, 2013 Smoke to Water, Mercedes Dorame, 2013

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