Research

Lisa is currently a PhD researcher at the Kingston University, School of Art in the Department of Critical and Historical Studies.

A Liminal Site: Curatorial methods exploring marginality, agency and the limen

 The arts ecology is full of complex systems, exchanges, and roles. Cultural intermediaries—curators, art historians, museum directors—facilitate opportunities and negotiate the public's perception of the artist, their role imbued with issues of agency and power (Maguire and Matthews, 2012). If agency is relational, then the responsibility of cultural intermediaries is paramount when representing artists from marginalised positions.

This research project considers an inherent power imbalance in curatorial methodologies implemented by cultural intermediaries that suppress agency by presenting the artist as Other, anchoring their biographical marginality as foreground, and restricting their canonicity through labels like ‘Outsider Art.’ Artists with non-traditional or limited communication modes can lose agentic capacity over their artistic context. This project argues that when an artist's agency is at risk, the responsibility of the cultural intermediary becomes one of advocacy and urgency.

The framework for this project is the concept of a liminal site as a curatorial methodology for cultural intermediaries. Informed by María Lugones’ proposition of the limen as a site of anti-structure released from dominant meanings, it holds the potential for radical approaches to agency and advocacy (2006). The project is further framed by ‘the curatorial’ defined as an encompassing notion, expanding the “space” of care beyond selection/display and considers the ‘extracurricular’— programming, texts, events, workshops—as crucial (Ndikung, 2024). The development of a liminal methodology expands upon existing curatorial strategies that address difference and that are grounded in feminist, decolonial, and disability theory.

An interdisciplinary and practice-based project, it includes conducting interviews and public forums to gain insight from relevant scholars and cultural intermediaries to document emerging strategies and methods. This research supports an evolving hypothesis of a liminal methodology that will be developed through engagements with artist Nnena Kalu (b. 1966, Glasgow) in curating an exhibition and the archives of artist Aloïse Corbaz (1886-1964, Switzerland) in creating a catalogue. Kalu and Corbaz are women artists whose respective marginality is exacerbated by circumstances of mental health conditions and learning disability.

Informed by the project’s definition of the curatorial, the practice-based methods for the exhibition will involve facilitating an exploratory framework for Kalu to expand her practice and potential for transcreation between Kalu and artist Rebecca Kressley (b. 1981, USA); producing and evaluating exhibition communications; critical writing; and developing discursive programming. The practice of creating a catalogue on Corbaz will further employ critical writing methods supported by historical research; using visual archive material as a contextual tool and diagrammatic mapping to challenge the binary of centre and periphery, thereby reframing Corbaz through a feminist lens. This project reflects on the positionality of Kalu and Corbaz—intersectionality and limited verbal, non-traditional communication—to ask: How can  conventional art world curatorial standards be challenged to establish an agentic relational space where artistic and curatorial practices interact on fluid, non-hierarchical and non-traditional terms? (Lugones 1990)  

The liminal methodology that the project will establish holds the potential to be applied further in chartering a more inclusive and equitable representation in the visual arts. It will address issues of centres and peripheries, cultural exchange and appropriation, and competing claims to tradition within the context of decolonising art history thought (Grant and Price, 2020). The project's contribution of knowledge and methodological innovation will challenge existing paradigms. 

Grant, C. and Price, D. (2020) 'Decolonizing Art History', Art History, 43(1), pp.8–66. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8365.12490.

Lugones, M. (2006) 'On Complex Communication', Hypatia, 21(3), pp.75–85. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2006.tb01114.x.

Lugones, M. (1990) 'Structure/antistructure and agency under oppression', The Journal of Philosophy, LXXXVII(10), pp.500–507.

Maguire, J.S. and Matthews, J. (2012) 'Are we all cultural intermediaries now? An introduction to cultural intermediaries in context', European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15(5), pp.551–562. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367549412445762.

Ndikung, B.S.B. (2024) 'Detecting / Distilling Care in Curating / the Curatorial', in P. O'Neill, G. van Noord and E. Larison (eds.) Not Going It Alone: Collective Curatorial Curating. apexart, pp. 41–48..