Curating Science Gallery London

CURATING SCIENCE GALLERY LONDON

“Once I started working in the world of science,” reflects Hannah Redler-Hawes, curator of The Science Gallery London’s current exhibit, “I became completely absorbed and fascinated by it.”

After graduating with an arts degree in the 1990s, Redler-Hawes teamed up with some friends to create a digital media company, swiftly connecting her with “artists working with software, which I didn’t know anything about in any of my arts education at the time.”

“I found this fascinating,” remembers Redler- Hawes, and her career quickly migrated to museums: specifically, the Science Museum, where she expanded her artistic scope to encompass climate change, biomedical sciences, energy, and digital arts.

As someone coming from a “biased” arts education, Redler-Hawes has become dedicated to her “dream place, an interdisciplinary between arts and science.”

Redler-Hawes, who is also Head of Arts Programme at the London Science Museum and has worked to create exhibits with the Open Data Institute, Tate Modern, Natural History Museum, and others, says the physical space inhabited by the Science Gallery London is a “beautiful mishmash of the building, reclaiming the space, that’s now a public area that people now come to gather; hundreds of people joining up here, which is a real gift.”

The gallery’s inaugural exhibit, entitled‘HOOKED: When Want Becomes Need,” brings tolight addictions experienced by the vast majority ofthe population: sugar, smartphones, advertising andsocial media, as well as the more ‘classical’ addictionslike alcoholism, and the ultimate effects ofaddictions on daily life.

The gallery has worked very closely with King’sCollege London: Redler-Hawes was referred toexperts on addiction at King’s, who would then“introduce [her] to other colleagues, making it quitea big group effort.”

“There’s no piece of art that deals directly withany specific addiction in the gallery,” Redler-Hawesexplains. Each highly specific theme, such as foodor sex addiction, is addressed in a series of events. Incollecting and commissioning pieces for the exhibit,Redler-Hawes aimed to “tell stories, ask open-endedquestions” rather than dictate a specific message.

“Anything with addiction is not a result of deviatingfrom society,” concludes Redler-Hawes. “It’svery much a part of being in society.”

written by Alice Koltchev - photography by Kit Komarov