Experience It
A conversation series with artists who use curatorial methodologies to create large-scale exhibition projects.
Curated by James Voorhies with Dena Beard
The Lab
San Francisco, CA
February 26–October 29, 2018
Simon Fujiwara, Sharon Hayes, Shahryar Nashat, Jon Rafman, Martine Syms
Made possible with funding and support by California College of the Arts and The Lab. Generous support for Experience It provided by Marv Tseu and Mary Mocas; realized within my responsibilities as Chair of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice and Dean of Fine Arts at California College of the Arts
Museums, galleries, biennials, and art fairs are presenting work by artists who interweave objects, images, texts, sound, video, and performance into dense, enveloping environments. These presentations physically implicate viewers in orchestrated situations, both inside and outside the institution, where art and ideas coalesce through the direct experience of space and time. Often complex in the making, the work requires artists and their studios to corral a range of skilled resources to produce something well beyond the expertise and confines of an artist’s studio.
This development speaks to the changing characteristics of the artist figure—manager and artistic director, negotiator and administrator—in reaction to expectations of art institutions and audiences who crave more experiential engagement with contemporary art.
Experience It was a conversation series about this shift. In dialogue with visiting artists, the series examines, among other things, the social and architectural conditions of an exhibition site. The format was conversation-based: between each artist and James Voorhies, as well as showing film clips, performances, and images of their work. Experience It aimed to explore why artists choose their given artistic approaches, how institutions support them, and how they imagine audiences as integral to the art, ultimately arriving at a better understanding of the “it” in the work.
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