Abstract
This paper examines the evolving, far-reaching potential of new interpretative and curatorial norms in Australian and UK exhibitions engaged with queer and decolonizing histories, focusing on voice and textural interpretation. By comparatively exploring a series of recent exhibitions in the UK and Australia—such as QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection at National Gallery of Victoria (2022), Queer British Art at Tate Britain (2017), The Past is Now at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (2017), Unsettled at the Australian Museum (2021), and the current permanent collection displays of Art Gallery of New South Wales and Art Gallery of South Australia—this paper investigates how object selection, curatorial methodology, and changing socio-cultural contexts have prompted textual interpretation to adopt new functions. These include the admittance of uncertainty and doubt in curatorial research and frameworks, partiality and subjectivity in broader institutional contexts, and an embrace of plural rather than singular perspectives. This signifies a shift in the potential and purpose of museum interpretation from the dissemination of knowledge to consciousness-raising around curatorial frameworks, constituting an invitation to audiences to critically consider curatorial practices and to more actively participate in them. While not all of these developments are new, this paper suggests they have gathered pace and are becoming normative in curatorial practices. It also notes this occurs together with broader shifts in curatorial methodologies, and that these are transforming the (art)histories that are told in major state and national institutions, as well as the ways in which museums narrate and give voice to them.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Interpretation, Text, Voice, Queer, Decolonising, Subjectivity, Uncertainty, Plurality
