Independent curator
Co-Curator in Residence, Westgate Studios Project Space, Wakefield
Cu Curator's Speech, FutureEverything 2010, Manchester. Photo: Steve Lilley
I have been working as a freelance curator since 2004, initially as a founding member/director of the Manchester artist collective Contents May Vary, and then expanding my collaborative curatorial practice working with other artists, art historians and film-makers. Curation for Contents May Vary began as a DIY activity as a means to show our work and to develop concerns and critical dialogues with other artists, and this still remains an important part of my practice today. As an artist who also curates, the defining and subsequent simultaneity or separation of the roles of artist and curator is of interest to me critically. Ideas and modes of practice I employ in my practice as an artist also emerge in my curation such as ideas about objectness and value systems, (re)appropriation and site-responsivity. I find myself drawn towards historical sites and disused spaces as they provide a rich context to draw inspiration from.
Current curatorial projects I’m working on are a curatorial residency with Bob Milner at Westgate Studios Project Space where we are also studio holders, guest co-curator with film maker Vanessa Haley for the 2011 Holmfirth Arts Festival and co-director of Fundada Artists' Film Festival collaborating with Nancy Porter.
