Out Now: Curatorial Feelings by Eloise Sweetman
“Curatorial Feelings is a book that collects arts practitioner Eloise Sweetman’s writing from the past decade—written on the occasion of exhibitions she curated, written on and for individual artworks, as well as for public talks. Sweetman often wrote while, and not before, the artworks were on view. The time of retrospection, and of being with artworks, imbues her language. Moving between prose and poetry, impressions and reflections, coursing through the writing is a commitment to senses, to subjectivity, to social responsibility. Sweetman’s writing contributes to a genre of curators’ writing that takes things to heart, that takes things personally. Calling out her ‘curatorial feelings’ juxtaposes and unites the two modes of engagement: as a curator and as a sentient being. Curatorial feelings foreground subjectivity, intuition, senses, and belief systems, while pushing for new art historical narratives and an ethical professionalism”. – From Introduction to feelings: Taking things to heart by Jo-ey Tang in ‘Curatorial Feelings’
Sweetman writes to the work of Malin Arnell, Gwenneth Boelens, Katarzyna Kobro, Charlotte Posenenske, Miyeon Lee, Arin Rungjang, Jo-ey Tang, and Katie West while connecting back to exhibitions at Shimmer in Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands; Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; and Treignac Projet Treignac, France. The author shares digital and film photography and process material from exhibitions with Zarouhie Abdalian, Ruth Buchanan, Sofia Caesar, Theo van Doesburg, Marcel Duchamp, Ian Kiaer, Lee Kit, Liu Chao-tze, Ma Qiusha, K.R.M. Mooney, Elena Narbutaitė, Kate Newby, Shanta Rao, Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tapperser, and Louwrien Wijers.
Born in Western Australia, ELOISE SWEETMAN is an arts practitioner committed to engendering moments and spaces where intergenerational audiences can come together with art, along with the various ways such encounters come about, and how communities arise from such meetings. A common thread in her practice is to deliberately engage in hospitality and reconcile the responsibility of putting exhibitions, texts, talks, events into the world. Her practice intertwines the group exhibition format with a strong emphasis on event-based programming and working within diverse organisational contexts from the Biennale to glasshouse, from the observatory to artist-run space. Sweetman is part of LAPS’ Knowledge Network, read more about her research practice here.
Curatorial Feelings is designed by Dongyoung Lee and published by Shimmer Press, Rotterdam.
The publication is supported by LAPS, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Droom en Daad, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Stichting Stokroos, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Mondriaan Fonds, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.