Key Concepts: Research, Interpretation and Communication

This course aims to focus on key methoes in the processes of research and its interpretation and communication. Through a series of lectures and visits with art objects and texts regarding art movements, it enhances students' knowledge and skills related to the history and theory of the production, consumption, and mediation of art.

The assignments and my responses to them are as follows:

1. Exhibition Review
I had to write a review of a recent exhibition that I had seen, thinking about the venue, the layout, lighting, accompanying information as well as the actual artworks, their concept and content, including bibliography.
I visited Tate Modern and saw Every Tangle of Thread and Rope exhibiting Magdalena Abakanowicz's two and three-dimensional tapestries. Attracted by its uniqueness that I have never encountered before, I decided to appreciate its lingering image and analyse the curatorial consideration that I could see from this exhibition. In turn, this essay gave me a good mark.


2. Single Artwork Analysis
I had to choose a reproduction of a painting, sculpture, installation or a photographic art piece. I had to write a short description and analysis of the chosen image, including bibliography.
After visiting Wallace Collection in London and fascinated by The Swing, a representative artwork of Rococo style, which made me buy a small hand mirror with its cover of the artwork. I researched further with several materials available online, especially videos where scholars discussed about this painting and the style itself as well. These materials helped me a lot to grasp ideas of what Rococo is and hidden meanings of the painting which made me have curiosity at first glance. So I put those discoveries in my essay, and gained a good mark as well.

3. Visual Essay
I had to create an essay with visual images to explain and explore my choice of concept and the visual examples I have selected, including bibliography. It had to show off my visual literacy and understanding of artworks and materials, helping the readers to make connections between artworks (images), organise visual material, and rationalise complex ideas.
Among the given four topics, Representation and Identity, The Body in Art, Technology and Media, and Space and Place, I chose the first topic and delved into Freud's idea of dream and the art movement Surrealism. As I am interested in human's ability of memory (which is also highlighted in Researching Contemporary's curatorial project) and became fascinated by the concept of Surrealism that I encountered during the lecture, I tried to connect how the idea of dream and the relationship between real and fake that constitutes one's identity is represented through several surrealists' artworks with relevant images.