Call for Proposals Art in the Archive: A Slow Return

Material from the Women's Art Library displayed on a lightbox
Material from the Women’s Art Library displayed on a lightbox

As institutions and archives welcome visitors back, this call for the 2023 Art in the Archive Bursary asks for ‘A Slow Return.’ This ‘slow return’ is one that urges contemplation, to think about the value of being with objects in the archive; the materiality of paper, publications, slides and artworks. It welcome’s the close readings and embodied relations that emerge from archival encounters and explorations.

Slowness also responds to the experiences of the last few years, where many of us have alternated between too too much and not nearly enough. Returning to the archive following the disparate experiences of the pandemic brings new perspectives, as the simple act of leafing through a box of archival materials takes on extra sensory qualities, after such experiences have been prohibited and out of reach for so long.

‘A Slow Return’ acknowledges that the impact of the pandemic is layered with decades of austerity, now renamed ‘the cost of living crisis’. The frantic quality of the crisis, with the instability of global politics and the urgency of the climate emergency, mean that slowness can be hard to come by.

The call finds affinity with Isabelle Stengers’ speculations on slow science, in which the power of participants thinking together bears more similarity to a gardener’s slow knowledge than the fast pace of “so-called rational industrial agriculture.” (Isabelle Stengers, “‘Another Science is Possible!’: A Plea for Slow Science,” lecture, Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, Université libre de Bruxelles, 2011).

Art in the Archive

The Art in the Archive Bursary is set up by the Women’s Art Library Advisory Board in collaboration with the Feminist Review.

For previous Bursary winners see the list below.

Proposals can take the form of artworks, participatory projects, writing, publishing, and curating.

The residency is supported by a grant of £1750 + £250 to be used towards a publication/output platformed through Feminist Review.

There will be a chance for the Bursary winner to publish on the Feminist Review’s blog or Open Space section.

Proposals might include:

  • Close looking at material making up the WAL
  • Exploring the facsimile as reenactment
  • Considering how to digitize archives’ materiality
  • Interpreting attributes of opacity/transparency, sparseness/density of visual and textual information
  • Reconsidering the archive’s political affect through its materials
  • Feminist futures – reclaiming non-exploitive new normals
  • Imaging a slow institution, slow knowledge – the WAL archive as ground for messy growth

Application Process

Deadline:  28 April 2023

Email proposals to Dr Althea Greenan, Curator of the Women’s Art LIbrary, Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London, a.greenan@gold.ac.uk

Proposals should take the form of a PDF of no more than 5MB or as a video or audio recording between 4 – 5 mins. Please include the following details:

  • Name of Project
  • Name and email of Researcher/s
  • Potential Schedule of research and outputs
  • Description of concept, format, response to the archive (500 words max)
  • Brief notes on use of £1750 budget (+ £250 to be used towards a publication/output platformed through ‘Feminist Review’)

Attachments

You can include up to 3 supporting documents that provide more information about the project such as CVs of participating artists/practitioners, images of relevant artworks, links to videos of earlier projects etc. Please list attachments provided.

We recommend that you visit the Women’s Art Library before submitting your proposal. To arrange a visit, please email Dr Althea Greenan, a.greenan@gold.ac.uk

Timeline

  • Successful applicants will be contacted by 1 June 2023
  • Projects will begin from July 2023

For more information about the Women’s Art Library.

Follow us on Instagram: @womensartlibrary

Women’s Art Library Advisory Board:
Barby Asante, Artist and Lecturer in Critical Studies, Art Department, Goldsmiths
Oreet Ashery, Artist and Professor of Contemporary Art, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University
Catherine Grant, Reader in Modern and Contemporary Art, Courtauld Institute of Art
Althea Greenan, Curator, Women’s Art Library, Special Collections, Goldsmiths
Natasha Hoare, Senior Curator, Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art
Helena Reckitt, Reader in Curating, Art Department, Goldsmiths
Nina Wakeford, Artist and Reader, Art Department, Goldsmiths

Representing the Feminist Review on the Women’s Art Library Advisory Board:
Chloe Turner, Writer and Researcher, Media and Communications Department, Goldsmiths
Annie Goh, Artist and Lecturer at London College of Communication
Juno Halina Rauber-Baio, Artist, Researcher and Anthropologist, Brazil

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