Clew: A Rich and Rewarding Disorientation was a curatorial project developed at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy, in Exeter, NH, USA. The exhibition, which was on view from January 20 to April 15, 2017, was the result of a two-year collaborative process with artists Deborah Barlow, painter, Todd Hearon, poet, Jung Mi Lee and Jon Sakata, musicians, and Lauren O’Neal, curator and artistic collaborator. Drawing from the many ideas evoked by the word clew, from the unfurling sails at the start of a quest, to the myth of the labyrinth, the exhibition emerged into a rich, immersive, and ever-shifting landscape where color, shape, sound, and texture compelled viewers to take a journey of discovery, and at times, disorientation. The exhibition offered new ways of working for the artists and curator, as well as new ways of experiencing the gallery for viewers. Educational programs included contemplative looking, meditation, beading workshops, and other experimental formats for engaging the gallery’s audiences of students, faculty, staff, and regional visitors.

The final exhibition (a designation meant only as a concession to the need for closure for this research) comprised paintings, scrim, projected video, sound, a sound board, hundreds of feet of speaker cable, speakers, and text. Sculptural elements included pedestals, metal trays, salt, and coal, furniture, books, magnifying glasses, flashlights, other specialized lighting, and water. There were numerous scheduled programs and events which incited various (and unexpected) forms of audience engagement. As a non-collecting, experimentally-minded contemporary art gallery set within a traditional New England residential high school, this pedagogical proclivity is part of the Lamont Gallery’s mission. The participating artists were fully aware of the academic (non-commercial) context, were interested in the project’s potential for student and adult interaction, and excited by the prospect of furthering their own personal artistic discoveries.

Reflection on the Clew: A Rich and Rewarding Disorientation exhibition is part of my doctoral research on choreographic curation, Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency, which is summarized in the Research Summary. The Linking Paper provides points of connection, interplay, and entanglement between Clew and the broader research project. For further reading on curatorial dramaturgy, one area of inquiry within Clew, see Section Six: Extending Lines in All Directions: Curatorial Dramaturgy in the Assembling a Praxis text.

Go on, now. Get lost a little.