As the 2018–19 Carole Marchand ’57 Endowed Intern, I spent the year working in the curatorial department, which allowed me to explore my academic and art historical interests with guidance from the Tang staff, and to organize an exhibition of contemporary Chinese ink landscapes (shanshui).
In the fall, I worked on the interdisciplinary exhibition Like Sugar, which explored the seductive and destructive power of the substance through multiple lenses. Organized by Rachel Seligman, Malloy Curator, and Sarah Goodwin, English, the exhibition also included contributions by Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, Environmental Studies; Trish Lyell, Art; and Monica Raveret Richter, Biology. My job was to research the artists, potential speakers, and the problematic history behind sugar production. I helped source tools used in sugar production and advertisements from the 1940s and ’50s that were shown in the exhibition alongside works of contemporary art.
In addition to understanding the history of sugar and the way contemporary artists engage with its complicated and seductive affects on us, I learned creative ways an exhibition can be used for teaching. Each show I worked on at the Tang brought different departments together through art and emphasized a multilayered interpretation of each artwork.
I also worked closely with Curatorial Assistant Molly Channon and Dayton Director Ian Berry, which allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the details involved in curating an exhibition by seeing how they engaged with artists, placed objects, wrote labels, organized events and more.
These experiences gave me the foundation to begin planning my own exhibition for the Spring semester on contemporary Chinese ink landscapes. The medium’s history spans more than two thousand years, and contemporary artists have been reinventing and experimenting with the medium since the 1980s. I wanted to showcase the contemporary ink art movement’s connection to Chinese landscapes’ history of being a means to convey political and social concerns. Today’s Chinese artists use traditional symbols and mediums to investigate issues such as increased urbanization, climate change, the Chinese identity, and politics.
I researched artists, the medium, and previous shanshui exhibitions. I wrote an exhibition proposal and a list of artists I wanted to include. After reviewing the proposal with the Tang curatorial team, I narrowed down the artists and selected specific works to create a narrative and to engage different aspects of the medium. Then I reached out to artists, collectors, and galleries to see if the Tang could borrow the works.
The works I selected, seen together, illuminated the ways contemporary Chinese ink landscapes explore urgent issues such as the environment, religion, abstraction, and the role of culture, tradition, and the Chinese identity in the modern world. My goal for the exhibition, which I titled Between the Mountains, was to explore the ways the historic medium of ink landscapes has both evolved and endured. The title itself references the iconography and themes layered within this vast art form.
In addition to curating the exhibition, I also organized a series of events, including a public tour and tours for classes, workshops on ink painting, and a talk with one of the artists. Though the pandemic forced the cancellation of some events, I was able to give a few tours and conduct one of the workshops. My first curator tour felt exhilarating. I loved learning the ways different viewers engaged with the work and the narrative of the exhibition. Through the workshop, I was able to give participants a deeper, hands-on understanding of the complexities of the ink wash technique and to show through making how it is different from Western mediums. Both these events were great successes, bringing in people from across campus and the wider Saratoga Springs community as well.
My experience with Like Sugar showed me that Between the Mountains could appeal to a variety of classes from across the disciplines, including Asian studies, Chinese Language, Environmental Sciences, Religion, Philosophy, Art History, Art, and Political Science. Each course highlighted various facets of how the genre of ink landscape is used to explore social and environmental issues, philosophical and religious concerns, the connection between mountain-water (shanshui), man and earth. With Professor Ben Bogin’s Intro to Asian Studies course, I gave the students an overview of the exhibition, and they in turn researched specific works and, in a second class meeting at the Museum, presented their findings. I felt incredibly grateful to see these students work closely and in-depth with the exhibition, and how their responses realized what had been only an idea a few months before in whole new ways.
The year-long internship was one of the most rewarding aspects of my experiences with the Tang. I also worked as an exhibitions intern, gaining hands-on experience in curatorial work, and volunteered as a docent in the Tang Guide program and as a member of the Tang Student Advisory Council, which facilitates communications between the Tang and students and student groups and helps to organize programs run by and for students. Through the Tang Student Advisory Council that I got to be among the few students to pilot Roommate: Living with Tang Art, a program that allows students to borrow work from the Tang collection to hang on the walls of their living spaces.
My experiences at the Tang, particularity this year-long internship, were integral to my Skidmore education. I learned from a wide range of incredible mentors, spoke to numerous artists and creators, and followed my passion within the museum.
