______________________as well as untitled: September 2012

EXHIBITION: MICROMANAGEMENT
CURATED BY DAVID HOMEWOOD

MATTHEW BENJAMIN
CHRISTOPHER LG HILL
KATE MEAKIN
LIZZY NEWMAN
JOSHUA PETHERICK
ALEX VIVIAN

(studio study for the show)

OPENING SATURDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 4 – 6PM
EXHIBITION SAT 22 SEPTEMBER UNTIL SAT 13 OCTOBER 2012

Utopian Slumps is pleased to announce the opening on Saturday 22 September 2012 of Exhibition: Micromanagement curated by David Homewood.

1. The works presented in Exhibition: Micromanagement are manifestly indebted to the early twentieth century inventions of, on the one hand, collage and assemblage, and the Duchampian readymade, on the other. While the broad art historical provenance of these works is beyond doubt, the related set of techniques employed by the artists in their production – collection, storage, organisation, alteration, and display – is also indicative of their curatorial orientation.

2. Unlike the artist, the concerns of the professional curator – the nascent figure of post-1960s art – are not limited to aesthetic production: he is customarily obliged to perform a range of additional duties straddling the domains of public relations, marketing, administration and management. As a consequence, the curator’s inflated agency in the contemporary art world might be viewed as a threat to artistic autonomy.

3. The term “micromanagement” ordinarily refers to a manager’s close surveillance of, or unnecessary interference with, tasks delegated to a subordinate. It can be used to describe, for example, a curator’s unnecessary restriction of an artist’s production in some way. Through their sole commitment to the micro-management of form, however, the six exhibiting artists gesture towards an expanded conception of curatorial practice which resists the compromise of the professional curator.
*David Homewood, 2012

Exhibition: Micromanagement will take place at Utopian Slumps, Ground Floor, 33 Guildford Lane Melbourne from 22 September to 13 October 2012. For further information please contact Melissa Loughnan on +61 3 9077 9918 or melissa@utopianslumps.com.