Catalogue: Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War
A limited budget and a short timeframe meant that an e-catalogue was developed for an exhibition looking at how artists portray conflict. By Sara Bevan
What do artists contribute to our perceptions of conflict in a time when our general understanding of conflict is increasingly shaped by the media and the internet?
This is the main question explored in Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War, an exhibition showcasing art from Imperial War Museums’ (IWM) collection at IWM North in Manchester.
Commissions
The IWM has commissioned, collected and exhibited contemporary art since its inception in 1917. Our current contemporary commissioning scheme was instigated in 1972 as a result of a perceived need to create artistic records of the British involvement in Northern Ireland. Since then, our commissioning scheme has expanded.
Many of the resulting works by Langlands and Bell, John Keane and Steve McQueen are shown in this exhibition, alongside non-commissioned works by Ori Gersht, Willie Doherty, Jananne Al-Ani, kennardphillipps and Kerry Tribe, to name a few.
Downloadable catalogue
This is the first time that we have shown our contemporary collection together on this scale. For this reason we were keen that the exhibition should have a published legacy.
But the exhibition was curated in a short period and this, alongside financial pressures, made it hard to produce a printed book.
The obvious solution was an e-catalogue. This is free of charge on the IWM website. There is also a short audio curator tour of the exhibition.
The e-catalogue was created by Northover&Brown, a design consultancy that also did the exhibition graphics. The final layout reflects the exhibition design, which was based on the angles of the IWM identity. The document can be printed at home.
The catalogue also contains a unique resource that isn’t available elsewhere. As part of the research for the exhibition we filmed interviews with a number of key artists.
Clips from these interviews were used in the exhibition and the full interviews will enter our sound archive. However, the e-catalogue presented an opportunity to make the full transcripts accessible, providing a broader context to the exhibition.
The digital format has its complications, but also presents possibilities, many of which we are only just beginning to explore.
Sara Bevan is the curator of Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War, which runs until 23 February at IWM North, Manchester
The Catalyst e-catalogue can be downloaded from www.iwm.org.uk/north
This is the main question explored in Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War, an exhibition showcasing art from Imperial War Museums’ (IWM) collection at IWM North in Manchester.
Commissions
The IWM has commissioned, collected and exhibited contemporary art since its inception in 1917. Our current contemporary commissioning scheme was instigated in 1972 as a result of a perceived need to create artistic records of the British involvement in Northern Ireland. Since then, our commissioning scheme has expanded.
Many of the resulting works by Langlands and Bell, John Keane and Steve McQueen are shown in this exhibition, alongside non-commissioned works by Ori Gersht, Willie Doherty, Jananne Al-Ani, kennardphillipps and Kerry Tribe, to name a few.
Downloadable catalogue
This is the first time that we have shown our contemporary collection together on this scale. For this reason we were keen that the exhibition should have a published legacy.
But the exhibition was curated in a short period and this, alongside financial pressures, made it hard to produce a printed book.
The obvious solution was an e-catalogue. This is free of charge on the IWM website. There is also a short audio curator tour of the exhibition.
The e-catalogue was created by Northover&Brown, a design consultancy that also did the exhibition graphics. The final layout reflects the exhibition design, which was based on the angles of the IWM identity. The document can be printed at home.
The catalogue also contains a unique resource that isn’t available elsewhere. As part of the research for the exhibition we filmed interviews with a number of key artists.
Clips from these interviews were used in the exhibition and the full interviews will enter our sound archive. However, the e-catalogue presented an opportunity to make the full transcripts accessible, providing a broader context to the exhibition.
The digital format has its complications, but also presents possibilities, many of which we are only just beginning to explore.
Sara Bevan is the curator of Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War, which runs until 23 February at IWM North, Manchester
The Catalyst e-catalogue can be downloaded from www.iwm.org.uk/north