Ask a Curator 2021: Danielle Siemens

2022

Thank you for sending in your questions! Check out what Collections Manager/Curatorial Associate Danielle Siemens had to say here.Thank you for sending in your questions! Check out what Collections Manager/Curatorial Associate Danielle Siemens had to say here. …

Chapters

View all

Intro
Intro
0:00

Intro

0:00

Ask a Curator with Danielle Siemens
Ask a Curator with Danielle Siemens
0:11

Ask a Curator with Danielle Siemens

0:11

What do you love most when a new curation launches?
What do you love most when a new curation launches?
0:16

What do you love most when a new curation launches?

0:16

How do I get started on the path to curation?
How do I get started on the path to curation?
1:48

How do I get started on the path to curation?

1:48

What’s your oldest object?
What’s your oldest object?
2:39

What’s your oldest object?

2:39

What does your typical day look like?
What does your typical day look like?
3:41

What does your typical day look like?

3:41

Who is your favourite artist
Who is your favourite artist
4:34

Who is your favourite artist

4:34

Which object would you use to explain humanity to aliens?
Which object would you use to explain humanity to aliens?
6:38

Which object would you use to explain humanity to aliens?

6:38

Autogenerated Transcript from YouTube (if available)

Use CTRL+F to find key words if it is a longer transcript​.

Intro

0:05

i don’t know if i should be looking at

0:06

you or the camera

0:08

[Laughter]

What do you love most when a new curation launches?

0:18

okay what do i love most when a new

0:20

curation launches so

0:22

i guess i’m not sure if the question is

0:23

about when an exhibition is first put up

0:25

or about when

0:27

um we’re sort of starting the planning

0:29

so maybe i’ll kind of tackle both

0:31

so

0:32

um i guess when a new exhibition goes up

0:34

one of the things i love most is when i

0:36

get to talk to gallery attendants

0:38

and hear about conversations they’ve had

0:41

with visitors

0:44

especially when

0:45

maybe a visitor noticed something or saw

0:48

something an artwork i didn’t think

0:49

about or

0:52

when they’ve learned something or were

0:53

kind of challenged in their thinking

0:55

or when i get to have those

0:56

conversations with visitors as well

0:58

through our programs

1:00

um

1:01

but when we’re sort of in the beginning

1:03

stages of an exhibition

1:05

i really enjoy sort of that very initial

1:08

stage of just research so whether i’m

1:11

working on a historical show where i’m

1:13

getting to

1:14

read books or go into the archive

1:18

or sort of

1:19

discover where artworks are in different

1:22

public and private collections

1:24

or if i’m working with contemporary

1:26

artists getting into their studio seeing

1:28

what they’re working on um

1:30

learning about the ideas they’re

1:32

thinking about and their influences and

1:34

then getting to dive deeper into those

1:35

to be able to write about and interpret

1:38

their work for the public so i love that

1:40

kind of initial stage when things are

1:41

still unknown and very broad

1:44

you don’t quite know what form the show

1:45

is going to take yet

How do I get started on the path to curation?

1:50

so i guess for me personally i followed

1:52

maybe a more formal or conventional path

1:55

i studied art history and university and

1:58

i was really fortunate to be able to do

2:00

a practicum and an internship in

2:04

different art galleries

2:05

but i think beyond some sort of

2:08

prescriptive educational or experiential

2:11

path

2:12

um it’s really about just immersing

2:14

yourself in an arts community so

2:16

going to see art going to reading about

2:19

art

2:20

meeting artists and having conversations

2:22

with them

2:23

and talking to other people about art i

2:25

think so much of curating is really just

2:27

about building relationships and

2:30

collaborating um and so i think kind of

2:34

immersing yourself in a community and

2:35

building those relationships is really

2:37

key

What’s your oldest object?

2:41

okay so i managed the art collection

2:43

here at the gallery and

2:45

someone asked about the oldest object we

2:47

have

2:48

that would be a sandstone sculpture from

2:52

central india um made in the 11th or

2:55

12th century

2:56

it is a representation of the god the

2:59

hindu god shiva in his most ferocious

3:02

form the bahrava

3:05

so shiva is a god that

3:09

is meant to destroy the universe in

3:11

order to recreate it so he is someone

3:13

who represents

3:14

many contradictions

3:16

and in the sculpture we have he has

3:18

eight arms and he’s holding different

3:20

attributes that represent him such as a

3:24

drum and a skull topped staff

3:28

this sculpture in its size and intricacy

3:31

indicates that it was most likely

3:32

commissioned by royalty at the time

3:35

it’s also one of the largest and

3:38

heaviest sculptures we have in the

3:39

collection

What does your typical day look like?

3:42

okay so my typical day at the gallery

3:45

involves a lot of different tasks

3:47

dealing with both the collection and

3:49

with exhibitions

3:51

so i might come into the office and

3:54

check on all our art storage vaults and

3:56

deal with administrative tasks related

3:58

to the collections so

4:00

processing new acquisitions or dealing

4:02

with loans or

4:04

answering public inquiries about our

4:06

collection or about our exhibition

4:08

history

4:09

and then also planning exhibitions so

4:11

researching

4:13

working on floor plans writing labels

4:16

editing them

4:17

[Music]

4:18

or actually being physically in the

4:19

installation

4:22

and i’d say the majority of my work is

4:25

in my office on my computer and i often

4:28

have several meetings working with all

4:30

my colleagues across the gallery to

4:31

bring exhibitions to fruition

Who is your favourite artist

4:36

okay who is my favorite artist um this

4:39

is a question that i’m not going to

4:41

answer

4:42

because it’s too difficult

4:44

but because i do manage the collection

4:46

um

4:47

i thought i could talk about a work that

4:50

really fascinates me and has been top of

4:53

mind because i

4:54

had the opportunity recently to show it

4:56

to a class of university students

4:59

so this is a photograph by

5:02

an artist named hugo view agar and it’s

5:04

from 1914

5:06

so it’s one of the oldest photographs we

5:07

have in the collection

5:09

and

5:10

its title is irma and hem and it is an

5:14

autochrome so an autochrome is an early

5:17

color photo process

5:19

that was patented in 1903 by the lumiere

5:22

brothers in france

5:25

and

5:26

in really simplistic terms

5:28

it’s made by coating a glass plate with

5:32

microscopic grains of potato starch that

5:35

are dyed in the primary colors

5:38

and hugo viogar was born in germany

5:41

came to canada around 1912 and he set up

5:44

a photography studio on jasper ave in

5:46

edmonton

5:47

and he was one of the only people

5:50

working in the autochrome process in

5:52

north america and the only one in our

5:55

region of western canada

5:57

and this image is particularly beautiful

6:00

it’s of his daughter

6:02

irma

6:03

but if you look closely in the

6:04

background you’ll see a kind of shadowy

6:06

figure of a young boy

6:08

named him that’s her brother

6:10

and

6:11

what’s fascinating about this work is

6:13

that the way it’s made is still a

6:15

mystery to us

6:16

over 100 years later

6:18

the autochrome process didn’t allow for

6:21

a double exposure so some experts think

6:25

that

6:26

uh viewagar was using mirrors

6:28

other think that maybe there was an old

6:31

image that wasn’t washed off the plate

6:33

and so it showed up when he was taking

6:34

this picture of his daughter

Which object would you use to explain humanity to aliens?

6:40

okay

6:41

this is a difficult question which

6:43

object would i use to explain humanity

6:46

to aliens

6:48

okay i’m going to bring it back to the

6:49

collection because that’s always top of

6:51

mind um

6:53

so a work that we acquired

6:55

just last year actually is by the artist

6:57

dean dreever

7:00

the work is called pass the hat and

7:03

it is um

7:05

a maquette so a model for the larger

7:08

finished work so the maquette is only

7:10

about 36 inches tall and the final work

7:12

is over 17 feet

7:15

dean dreever is haida and he’s from

7:17

edmonton but he’s now based in toronto

7:20

and he has made several works out of

7:23

stacked paper and this is one of them

7:26

so after

7:28

in through conversations with him i

7:29

learned that the work is um it’s a totem

7:32

pole it takes a shape of a totem pole

7:34

and the top figure is a thunderbird and

7:38

it’s meant to represent himself and the

7:40

bottom figure is a bear and it

7:42

represents his daughter and in between

7:44

is a space where the thunderbird is

7:46

passing a watchman’s hat

7:49

to the bear and so

7:52

for

7:53

dean

7:54

it’s about

7:56

passing on sort of knowledge and lineage

7:59

um to his daughter to the younger

8:00

generation as she watches over her own

8:03

generation and he watches over her

8:05

so the work has personal and cultural

8:07

symbolism but i think its message

8:11

related to

8:13

relationships

8:15

to intergenerational

8:17

knowledge and care is really

8:21

a universal of all humans

8:24

and the other really fascinating thing

8:26

about this work is that

8:28

um

8:29

it

8:30

has a commentary on technology and the

8:31

way humans have adapted technology

8:34

throughout time so he’s reconfiguring

8:37

a traditional totem pole into paper you

8:40

and using

8:42

advanced technologies to construct that

8:44

but he’s also using paper which is a

8:46

very ancient

8:47

form of material

8:49

that humans have made

8:54

you

No results found