Independent curator
Christine Borland, Black, White and Shades of Grey, (detail) 2006, from Anatomy Acts exhibition, Edinburgh + tour
I am a curator and writer based in Edinburgh, and have been curating exhibitions since 1987. My main interests are in contemporary art of any media, particularly with interdisciplinary and natural sciences concerns. Consequently I often undertake projects that also include historical and non-arts material.
I have written about my curatorial process in the essay 'Subtle Knots and Strange Stations' in Anatomy Acts. How we come to see ourselves (Birlinn, 2006), an exhibition and book I worked on with Dawn Kemp (Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh). I draw inspiration from many diverse creative methods such as those of Andre Breton, Andrej Tarkovsky, Tacita Dean, and Jorge Luis Borges in putting projects together, and am increasingly keen to experiment with curatorial models (hence my co-founding the Institute for Curatorship and Education), including more emphasis on writing projects. However, some of my work has been more focused on contemporary art practice alone.
Working at Edinburgh College of Art, I also find that I curate fewer projects but on a more serious scale, e.g. Life is Beautiful and All you need to know for the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle (2002) and a current speculative project on Charles Darwin and contemporary art (see www.speciesoforigin.org).
I've been a member of IKT (the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art) since 1993.
