Dr Susan Brilliant: ‘I don’t think of curating as categorising pictures’

Portrait © Michael Reynolds

The Australian-born curator has been accountable for some of probably the most vital reveals of the final 15 years. She talks gala’s, mentors, and the issue with arts schooling

Dr Susan Brilliant is a British-Australian curator based mostly in London. In 2007 she co-curated How We Are at Tate Britain, the primary main exhibition of British pictures on the establishment, that includes Julia Margaret Cameron, Cecil Beaton, Invoice Brandt and extra. Following a PhD in curating at Goldsmiths, she labored on the Nationwide Portrait Gallery, earlier than pursuing freelance curating, working with Phoenix Artwork Museum, Serlachius Museum, Finland, and PHotoESPAÑA. Franco Vimercati: The World in a Grain of Sand, curated by Brilliant, is at La Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, till 10 September 2023.

I’m British, however I used to be born in Australia and most of my household stay in South Africa. I’ve lived about half of my life outdoors the UK. Every nation I’ve lived in has a completely completely different tradition, which impacts all the pieces – artwork, design, politics and, of course, pictures.

Music was crucial in my teenage years. I went to see loads of bands. Tradition was tied in with trend and music, and pictures performed an element in that via magazines, report covers and music movies.

I don’t think of curating as categorising pictures. I work with themes – meals, trend, motherhood – as they’re my approach right into a topic. Take Feast for the Eyes (2017); it’s probably not about meals, it’s about many different issues, like nonetheless lifes throughout media. I needed to look at this enduring inventive custom – first taken from portray – and the way artists have adopted, borrowed from, or subverted the style. To see the way it resonates on completely different registers over time. I additionally needed to discover when humour and play are mixed with the most typical of topic issues, and the senses that come up.

I began working freelance as I had heaps of concepts I needed to discover. Being certain to at least one establishment felt stifling. I’m at my finest when busy and juggling – utilizing completely different elements of my mind and abilities – from the very sensible to deep analysis. Being unbiased has provided me so many alternatives that may by no means have come my approach in any other case.

I finished instructing in 2017. However the greatest modifications I skilled in the course of the 15 years that I taught have been all associated to wider issues inside tertiary schooling. Cuts have had a knock-on impact concerning consumption numbers, hours, amenities and time. None of it’s passable for college students or workers.

Photograph gala’s are irrelevant to me. They’re in regards to the market and my profession sits outdoors of that; they’re incomparable to an exhibition area. Their position is to promote, appeal to collectors and collect folks collectively. I like them for the latter – it’s good to see buddies and to attach with colleagues in a single intense hit.

“To make it as a curator, it’s important to take it significantly and be skilled. This implies realizing the literature and occupied with the position of the exhibition, museum or gallery”

The smartphone and social media are probably the most vital modifications to the medium over the past 20 years. However what’s fascinating is how little pictures has modified. The historical past is the medium shifting and altering to technological advances and the world at giant; that continues.

I swim, run and will do extra yoga. I additionally spend extravagant quantities of time watching skincare and make-up tutorials. My greatest challenges have included being pregnant, early motherhood and menopause. Generally feminine expertise can really feel like being hit on the again of the top with a heavy spade.

House Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identification, my 2013 present at The Photographers’ Gallery, appears to resonate probably the most. The topic of maternal ambivalence is extra simply examined at this time in museums, books and gallery areas. This wasn’t the case a decade in the past. In phrases of my work at this time, I’m proud of To Stroll within the Picture at Lismore Fortress Arts. It probed into concepts round religion, the land, and our place on the planet. These questions appear related in a time of local weather disaster – and will probably be extra pressing in 100 years’ time.

To make it as a curator, it’s important to take it significantly and be skilled. This implies realizing the literature and occupied with the position of the exhibition, museum or gallery – how they impart, your house on this ecosystem, and the audiences that attend. Additionally, spend time with artists and artwork. It all the time surprises me how some curators appear not to do that. Folks I’ve labored with over time have handed on sage recommendation or led by instance, together with Sandy Nairne on the Nationwide Portrait Gallery, Andrew Renton, my PhD supervisor, and curator Val Williams.