Nkechi Research Presentation & Workshop 2024

Exhibition Curation

Anthologies Assembly


Transart Institute

London Residency 2025

Curatorial Guidelines


The Anthologies Assembly, London 2025, extends a call for proposals for a vibrant, student-guided convergence of research inquiry and creative exploration. Building upon the inaugural assembly, participants are encouraged to embrace "research-based creative practice" as a means of knowledge generation where diverse disciplines intersect and boundaries blur. We welcome proposals that illuminate PhD research, including nascent "works-in-progress," emphasizing the value of ongoing inquiry. Guided by student feedback expressing both a desire for grounding in practice and community as well as exceptional moments that inspire, we aim to create spaces for genuine encounters and shared learning, where participants leave with lasting impressions on research and creative endeavors that continue to spark curiosity throughout the year.

Our curatorial framework centers on the concept of investigation, as both a rigorous pursuit and an introspective exploration. Drawing from its etymological roots, we conceive of investigation as a tracing towards something no longer present—a turning-towards truths hidden or lost in time; and a nuanced examination of practices, be they social, political, or personal. We invite proposals that explore:


  • Investigation as a generative action, a consideration and analysis of our roles as practice-based researchers. How might we investigate our own processes and practices?
  • An artistic articulation of anxieties related to surveillance, erasure, and contemporary socio-political pressures, the heightened sense of threat and being watched/observed/erased investigated that many of us feel collectively and/or individually at this moment in time.
  • An engagement with the etymology of investigation as an inward turn or a tracing back through signs (vestiges) to discover concealed or hidden narratives.
  • The exploration of concealment and evasion as artistic strategies, ways of eluding investigation and leaving no trace.
  • A query into how we conduct investigation in our work. What methodologies may transcend aggressive and invasive research practices, emphasizing instead the synthesis of discovery-through meticulous examination and  making-with verification?
  • Questioning the ethics of disclosure and the nature of hidden knowledge - are there secrets or kinds of information that should remain hidden? Is part of our work as creative practitioners to conceal as much as reveal, depending on the nature of the investigation and who is doing the investigating? Are there things that should remain concealed from or in our own investigations - or even, from us as investigators?


We also invite proposals or submissions that do not engage with these questions at all, or that inquire in other ways not imagined here. Work that is representative of student research interests is wholly valid and will be considered equally. We welcome collaborative and group proposals and submissions. 

Feel free to submit multiple manifestations of a project (material, physical, performative, sonic, etc); something in the main space with something in the studio space or outside; could be two parts of the same project; or for example, a material work that exists on the gallery wall with an accompanying time-oriented movement piece, et al. We strive to include all proposed work, and will only decline 1) if the spaces do not support the requirements of the proposal, and 2) proposals that are beyond controversy and deliberately offensive. We will not decline until having had a discussion with the artist(s).

Recognizing the importance of space, we are pleased to announce access for the entire duration of the residency to both a dedicated gallery space at Borough Road Gallery and an additional studio at the new London South Bank University location. We intend for these dedicated spaces to facilitate experimental and process-oriented exhibitions, fostering imaginative potential and embracing our program's transnational character, providing a nourishing environment for connection and exchange.

In direct reaction to the rhetoric and actions of erasure espoused by the current American administration as elsewhere, we emphasize that we champion intersectionality, difference, and co-relating. We encourage submissions that amplify marginalized perspectives across ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. We advocate for embodied approaches that prioritize personal needs alongside conventional academic and artistic paradigms.

We hope that the London residency will be a place where we as creative practitioners and researchers may come together to connect, share, and be inspired.

GIBRALTAR POINT CENTER FOR THE ARTS

GRADUATE RESEARCH CREATION RESIDENCY

WITH SIMON POPE

 

Presentation: A wine-dark sea: Navigating attention in the creative process through an embodied perspective

 

 

EARLY "CURATOR" STATEMENT: RACHEL DAGNELL


When I began at art school back in the early 90’s, I was struck by one of my fellow students who had a process of drawing rats, when lost for artistic direction or creative inspiration. Their reasoning was counterintuitive to me at the time “because they really didn’t like rats”, which I thought was a waste of time. The reason I recount this is because I think I understand the practice of delving into a potential realm or material which you are sure is going to trigger a creative process, more now, though not completely. That’s why I embarked on the research program and I feel pretty certain that’s why a lot of you trans disciplinary researchers are investigating these creative processes connections and practices as well. 
 
Theres no one answer. 
No right or wrong way of doing “it”.
Investigating and uncovering. 
 
Image and Text. 
Text and Images
 
Since then I’ve been making art and making other peoples art. As a technician in Museums and Galleries. As a curator in Kunsthalls and Public Spaces. As an editor of books and a producer of festivals and theatre productions. I feel I have approached making from nearly every perspective I can think of and that’s why I said yes to being on the exhibition committee, because there is more, so bring it on and we can engage in new dialogues, uncover new processes and inspire each other. 
 
The July Residency exhibition is going to be a showcase of creative research processes more than a polished show. We have 3 days and no production budget to speak of. We have the possibility of inviting people in London into the space. We have each other, colleagues and fellow practitioners from all corners of this chaotic globe and we need to share, not to be brilliant, but to understand, discuss visually and further our creative language investigations. 
 
Image and Text 
Text and Images.