Small works, big challenge

Just days away from installing Stowage and I'm fighting my way through a torrent of tasks that are all urgent and all important - press, invitations, installation logistics, preparing a launch event, finalising an exhibition guide and trying to develop an online catalogue - to name a few.

So this is what it's like to be a curator. Or is it? Like any project Stowage has required a series of negotiations and compromises. But this has been particularly complex because it’s not taking place in a spacious, white-walled gallery but a series of active retail premises.

Nothing could feel further from a giddy curatorial power trip than negotiating the placing of piece of art in the crowded window of a hardware store. Or explaining contemporary art to the sceptical owner of a sports shop.

I’ve also felt an overwhelming responsibility - duty even - to get it right for the artists who are participating. Most of them have put a lot of effort into meeting a brief that turned out to be rather more challenging than we could have imagined.

The making of meaningful work in this context wasn't the only challenge we underestimated. Putting small-scale artworks in shop windows sounded like a simple, low-key way for me and a fellow artist, Felicity Shillingford, to ease ourselves in to curating. I imagined about 15 artists and 5 shops. Somehow it grew, until it entailed bringing together 24 artists and 17 shops. Which in turn has meant carrying on almost 40 separate negotiations.

Only time will tell if it's going to all come together. Nine days to launch and counting...

Stowage, West Quarter Shops, Fore Street and New Bridge Street, Exeter
17th April - 14th May 2010