EG: How did you go about selecting the three artists for the exhibition? LH: Selecting the artists was, for me, both an exciting and daunting process. With doubt comes second-guessing and I knew these early decisions were the key ones I was going to make in this process. In conversations with both Amanda Roderick, director of Mission Gallery, and Gavin Wade, who acted as a mentor for me on the project, I initially looked for the manual: A Guide to Selecting Artists. Then I realised, of course, that there isn’t one and that we each draft our own. I knew I needed to look outside of Wales, and outside of the existing networks into/ out of Wales. I began by looking online for what felt like days, only to realise I needed to be out in the world, and so went along to Frieze London and, thankfully, to Sunday Art Fair. It was here that I encountered the work of Catherine Biocca. It was Catherine’s first time showing work at an art fair; her gallery, Jeanine Hofland, was participating there with a solo project. A few emails and Skype chats later, I visited Catherine in Amsterdam to see her work in the RijksakademieOPEN 2015. Once Catherine agreed to be a part of the show, I had a starting point, and invitations to Cornelia Baltes and Rosalie Schweiker soon followed. I knew of Cornelia’s work through her gallery, Limoncello. I met her in January at her solo presentation, Drunk Octopus wants to fight, and I had met Rosalie in Venice the previous year, after emailing to order her Work Annual, a publication which, I felt, drew attention to Rosalie’s position as being for an art that is a confusing mix of everything you do. EG: What connected them curatorially in your mind? LH: My initial invitation to each artist began with thoughts of temporary and mobile architectures, space and exchange, ideas that, for me, offer a loose curatorial connection between the three artists.
Monika, Cornelia Baltes, acrylic on canvas, 160 x 120 cm, 2016, courtesy the artist and Limoncello, London. Feathers, Cornelia Baltes, acrylic on routed black MDF, 69 x 55 cm, 2015, courtesy the artist and Limoncello, London. T-Rex, Cornelia Baltes, acrylic on routed red MDF, 50 x 40 cm, 2015, courtesy the artist and Limoncello, London.
Rosalie creates mobile architectures, which facilitate social exchange, Cornelia activates the gallery space by situating her paintings as protagonists, and Catherine layers dimensions of time and space, moving between 2D, 3D and 4D. Furthermore; each artist, in their own way, uses humour and a very direct visual language. EG: Did you have specific works in mind for the show, or did you invite the artists to make proposals? LH: I was keen not to ask for specific works, as from my experience of assisting artists, I have seen that this can often result in a very brief exchange. I invited the artists to make proposals and I really valued being a part of that process, whether I contributed in a small way to an early conversation that committed an idea very quickly, or a conversation that continued to explore ideas until the weeks leading up to the show. I remember Cornelia once said that you can tell whether a curator is a newbie or a seasoned pro by how many questions they ask and how much they get involved. I asked lots of questions.
EG: Catherine, Cornelia and Rosalie hadn’t shown together before. Did you anticipate that their work would gel so well together? LH: I knew there would be an interesting conversation between their works, and the spaces between would be just as interesting. I hoped their works would also fit well together, though I couldn’t quite anticipate how well. However, when Cornelia began to work on her idea for the wall work Pinch, which would pull at the wiring of Rosalie’s fridge, I knew there was potential in this mischievous interaction with the notion of the group show. Cohabitation can be awkward and navigating that awkwardness has been part of my role as curator, but when Cornelia started to navigate that too, through her work, I knew we were making something better than I could have hoped for. EG: The exhibition has no title; can you talk about your decision to just use the artists’ names?