Layla Gaten is a curator who graduated from the University of East Anglia. She is very interested in different cultures and bringing people together.
She is interested in hierarchy of social practice and exhibition making and always based her work around community engaged art. The object of the art is usually the outcome of the process.
I was very interested in this slide she showed us which are the type of questions and qualities she tries to go by when working with someone. She is very interested in peoples backgrounds and just generally understanding different groups of people. I found this to be very useful as I feel this is a very good list of questions to think about when working with anyone.
Below are more questions that she tried to base her work around. Which one again I find very interested how she will use these certain questions which will impact and help form her work and who she may work with.
She emphasized that anyone she works with needs to be enthusiastic and practical about the work otherwise she does not feel the purpose. I found this to be very useful information as I feel this is probably quite likely for most employers/commissioners as well, as they probably only want to work with people who know what the work is about and have a strong sense of concept for it. This helps me to realize how I should act and make sure I have a strong connection with the work if I was every to be a part of something like this.
It is also interesting to here her approach to everything being put online due to the pandemic and I can imagine Layla is very used to working face to face with people and so everything being virtual must have been a challenge for her, but she states that she has managed and has tried very hard to make communities online instead of real life which I really admire and it just goes to show how people who really enjoy their practice can adapt to their surroundings if they really want to.
Another thing I admire is that she always makes sure to research the artist and the communities to make sure they will be able to work together and not clash, I think this is really lovely as she is making sure that both parties will not have any issues and that the work can be strong and that she is able to connect people together. I really love this idea of how she brings people together. Especially at the moment where meeting people is such a difficult thing to do, it must be nice to be able to do this.
Flexibility is very crucial in the concept of the work but also the partied need to be happy to transform the work to adapt to anything, this i feel is something I would need to get better at as I feel i can be very protective over my work, but if I am going to be working with anyone, such as a curator, I will need to be willing to change things and alter them based on what is available and what works for the space provided, among other things. I had to change my display a little for the Bargehouse exhibition and I was inspired by Layla’s way of working and this idea of flexibility.
She showed us a few pieces of work she had completed with artists however I feel that her way of working and how she decides if she is going to work with someone has been very helpful to me and will help me realize how I should act and present myself whenever I get the opportunity to work with people.