75 Years of Collecting

Jens Hoffmann - Me, Myself and I

  

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As a result of an ongoing dialog with the curatorial staff of the Vancouver Art Gallery, curator Jens Hoffmann has written the following proposal for an exhibition that deals with the collection, its display and the curatorial considerations involved with it. For the moment this proposal is published as part of the Gallery's 75th Anniversary web-based publication.

ME, MYSELF AND I
An Exhibition Proposal for the Vancouver Art Gallery
Jens Hoffmann


Exhibition Synopsis
Me, Myself and I is an exhibition that aims to critically, creatively and ironically investigate the following concerns in relation to museum collections and their display:

  • The motives and criteria for acquiring works for a museum collection.
  • The forms of display and presentation of museum collections.
  • The role and function of a curator in the selection and display of works for a museum collection.
  • The position and responsibility of a curator in the set up of an exhibition.

Exhibition Narrative
Me, Myself and I will be an exhibition consisting of six individual two-week long presentations of works drawn from the collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, which holds about 8750 individual works at this point. Each presentation will take place in a small exhibition space at the Gallery that will be specifically designed to mimic a traditional Beaux Arts-style gallery space to evoke the atmosphere of conventional museum displays while in fact creating the exact opposite.

Each of the six exhibitions of Me, Myself and I will display works from the collection that have been selected according to a particular criteria that is determined by one distinct feature or characteristic of the curator of the exhibition. The display will follow a similar logic and will also be based on the curator's features or personality while keeping in mind the Beaux Arts-style display.


The Six Categories and Sections

  • 1,78 meters (The height of the curator)
    • This section will display works that are made by artists that have the same height as the curator. The works will be installed accordingly (wall based work 1,78 meters up on the wall, sculptures 1,78 meters away from a wall, etc.).
  • 64,3 kilograms (The weight of the curator)
    • This section will include works that in total amount to the weight of the curator at the day of the installation of this display.
  • J.H. (The initials of the curator)
    • This section will display works made by artists with the same initials as the curator, either J.H. or H.J. The works will be installed according to the number of letters in the artist's name that match the ones in the name of the curator (i.e. an artist who has the exact same name will be in the front of the room, an artist who has half of the letters matching those of the curator's name would be in the middle and someone who has only one or two letters in common will be towards the back).

    Jack Hardman, Diana, date Unknown, terracotta, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P. R. Brissenden, 61.52

    Some possible choices, from left to right:

    • Jack Hardman, Diana, date Unknown, terracotta, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P. R. Brissenden, VAG 61.52
    • Jan van Huysum, Untitled (Still Life with Flowers and Fruit), date unknown, oil on panel, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Davidson, VAG 83.49
    • J.C. Heywood, Homage to Hammond, date unknown, screenprint on paper, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of J. Ron Longstaffe, VAG 84.33
    • Jack Humphrey, Untitled (Vancouver Sketch), 1933, oil on canvas, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery Acquisition Fund, VAG 91.54


  • March (The curator's month of birth)
    • This section will display works of artists that were born in March. The maximum number of works displayed will be 13 as the curator was born on the 13th of March.


    Some possible choices, from left to right:

    • Lionel Lemoine FitzGerald, Back Yard, St. James, 1930, oil on canvas on board, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Vancouver Art Gallery Women's Auxiliary, VAG 59.2, artist's date of birth -1890/03/17
    • Piet Mondrian, Portrait of a Child, 1894, oil on canvas, Vancouver Art Gallery, Presented in Honour of Mrs. J. P. Fell by the Vancouver Art Gallery Women's Auxiliary and her Friends, VAG 66.6, artist's date of birth -1872/03/07
    • Paul Binkert, Birdmachine, 1966, metal, Vancouver Art Gallery, McLean Foundation Funds, VAG 67.20 a-b, artist's date of birth -1908/03/04
    • Jack Bush, Blue Check, 1967, acrylic on canvas, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of J. Ron Longstaffe, VAG 80.30, artist's date of birth -1909/03/20


  • German or Costa Rican? (The curator's ethnic background)
    • This section will display works by artists that have two distinctly different ethnic backgrounds. For each artist two works will be presented alongside each other.


    Some possible choices, from left to right:

    • Uta Barth, Ground #31, 1994, chromogenic print on panel, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Alison and Alan Schwartz, VAG 2000.45.1, citizenship - American/German
    • Whale, Robert R., An Unexpected Encounter, circa 1880, oil on canvas, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Dr. Rodrigo Restrepo, VAG 2004.27.1, citizenship - Canadian/British
    • Kenneth Friedman, An Empaquetage, date unknown, plastic film, string, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Kenneth Scott Friedman, VAG 72.18, citizenship - American/Bulgarian,
    • Albers, Joseph, Variant VIII, 1966, silkscreen on paper, Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of J. Ron Longstaffe, VAG 82.38, citizenship - American/German


  • 33 (The age of the curator)
    • This section will display works that were made when the artists who made them were 33 years old. The maximum number of works will be 33.


NOTE: Each of the selected works in any of the sections will be accompanied by a detailed wall text that will talk about the work itself and the artist, and which will contain information about the purchase of the work as well as details about its inclusion in previous displays at the Vancouver Art Gallery.


Conclusion
The two main subjects addressed by this exhibition are collecting practices of museums and the current state of curatorial practice: pointing to the arbitrary aspects of both. Me, Myself and I responds to a critique, mainly articulated by artists, directed towards a context in which the aims of the curator become more and more important, often overshadowing the ideas of the artists and the intentions of the individual works. The different criteria and the difficulties in obtaining such information about the artists reveal the absurdity behind many curatorial considerations today.

Me, Myself and I consciously pushes the position of the curator to its most extreme (and apparently random) limit pointing to the arbitrariness of criteria for the inclusion of works in exhibitions and collections. In Me, Myself and I the works of art selected seem to become unimportant, everything is based on the curator. Yet, the very detailed wall texts on the works and the very distinct display will point towards a different reading making the works and the artists who made them central to the exhibition, while formulating a critique of curatorial and museum practice.


The Curator
Jens Hoffmann is a curator and writer based in London where he is the Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Hoffmann is a Senior Lecturer at the Curatorial Studies Program of Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has curated over three-dozen exhibitions internationally since 1997 and written over 100 articles on contemporary art for exhibition publications and art journals.