[ISEA2019] Paper: Carly Whitaker — Using the Internet as a platform to destabilise gallery spaces, curation and artistic practice

Abstract

Keywords: Internet art, digital residency, networked curatorial practice, decolonization, global south

Floating Reverie is an online digital residency program started in early 2014 as a result of a perceived lack of platforms & opportunities available for artists using new media and digital culture in South Africa and Africa. This paper looks at how Floating Reverie, an alternative art space, can both provide new creative research and challenge the way in which we position traditional structures like the gallery. It will also position a curatorial networked method as a way of decolonising the curatorial process and curator. The Internet presents an entirely new space for artists versus tradition or conventional galleries or exhibition space which can be limiting and restrict their structure and implementation. It has the power to offer a platform to artists to destabilise these conventions. This article interrogates the residency as process and creative practice for contemporary African artists, breaking with established traditions and providing an alternative through the Internet.

  • Carly Whitaker, Independent Artist and Curator Johannesburg, South Africa

Full text (PDF) p. 348-354