Curated by Kitty Scott and Andrew Renton, Browser is an exhibition constructed as an archive or an archive constructed as an exhibition. Artists have submitted work to the project with the sole limitation that it should be storable within a standard Hollinger archival box. In this way every artist, whether established or less well known, has equivalent representation within the project. The boxes do not only contain artworks, but other material which might indicate how artists work. Project organized for Artopolis '97, Vancouver BC.
Browser is not a fixed exhibition, rather it is an assembled archive-like resource which can be explored, analysed and reconfigured by its audience. The audience is invited to make journeys through the wealth of material, to discover artists and to search for common threads between one form of artistic practice and another.
Browser has emerged from the important local, yet short history of large, inclusive exhibitions and smaller, selected exhibitions. It is an attempt to provide a structure which is able to be as inclusive and representative as is possible. Every working artist in British Columbia was welcome to participate. However, no extended experience of any exhibition can function interestingly without a selective, critical faculty. With Browser, we hope that the audience will be the ones actively engaged in this way.
There are many ways to approach Browser. The audience may search the database on the Browser CD, talk with the Browser staff, or simply wander through the exhibition space.
If you choose to search the database you may do so in two fundamental ways: by an index of words which includes artists' names or subject terms; or by searching the descriptions of the artists' works and collections. Each standard description contains: a consignment number which is also the container number; the name or names of the creator/s; the title; physical description (how much and of what kind it is); a brief biographical statement; a note on scope and content of the material describing in a little more detail the content of each box; notes about statements by artists or unusual aspects of the material; as well as a photograph of the content of each box.
The Browser CD presents a record of artists who have chosen to participate in Browser, to the date of this CD production. Although what is presented gives a very large indication of material received prior to the moment of going to press with this CD, it is not necessarily representative of all that is accepted into the exhibition.
The Browser CD has been assembled according to an established archival standard and stands as a record of the exhibition. The database it contains was assembled by an archivist who assisted in the preparation of a system to receive and describe the Browser Collection.
Text from: http://www.celinerich.com/artropolis/curatorial.html
(presented at the Roundhouse Community Centre from October 25 to November 23, 1997).
Posted by delpesco at March 5, 2006 10:37 AM