The Debate - Reveal Interpreting the show

Posted by Minnie Scott
Assistant Curator, Interpretation
8 October 2008

I work in the Interpretation team, part of Tate Britain’s Learning department. We are responsible for in-gallery resources – captions and panels, interactive devices, audio tours, etc. – and work on every exhibition and display, varying our approach depending on the focus of each show.

For a historical exhibition, for example, we find ways of communicating relevant background information about the period to help visitors understand the context in which the works were made. Interpretation for an exhibition of contemporary art clearly needs to be thought about in a slightly different way. Historical insights may be unnecessary in this case, but giving a sense of the artist’s intellectual concerns and current artistic debates is often useful, especially with this year’s Turner Prize nominees whose works draw from such a wide range of cultural reference points.

The most exciting thing about working with living artists is the opportunity to have them comment on their own practice. At this year’s Turner Prize exhibition the artists’ reflections on their own work are available as text, on film and as part of our iPod Touch multimedia tour. For an audience to be able to hear or read about a work in the artist’s own words allows an unusual kind of intimacy between viewer and creator, I think. This can be a particularly welcome element for visitors new to contemporary art.

At the same time, we’d never suggest that there is or can be a single reading of any work, whether that comes from the artist or from a curator speaking as the voice of the institution. Implying that anyone can have the last word on a work’s meaning shuts out the possibility of viewers’ diverse reactions and readings. One way we dealt with this potential pitfall for the Turner Prize interpretation was to include additional voices on the multimedia tour. We asked Suzanne Cotter and Jennifer Higgie, two of the judges from this year’s panel, to provide their own commentary and explain why the artists were short-listed.

The Turner Prize has always generated discussion and debate. We set out to provide a space for this debate within the exhibition where people could share their views, discuss the works on display, or indeed the state of the art world in general, and leave a record of their reactions. Working with the exhibition designers, we developed a reading room/café at the end of the exhibition which includes benches and tables for chat and reflection, books on the nominated artists scattered around for further exploration, films on each artist and a giant cork board displaying visitors’ comments. This ‘blog on paper’ has so far elicited a brilliant range of written and drawn responses, both critical and appreciative.

As well as leaving comments, everyone who visits the show can pick up a badge naming their favourite artist. Wearing your artistic views on your sleeve could spark discussions, even arguments, among wearers of rival badges in the reading room and hopefully outside the gallery too.

http://blog.tate.org.uk/turnerprize2008/?p=67#more-67