Curators
Deborah and Caro met while art students at Camberwell College back in the 1990s. They lost touch for a while but thanks to Google reconnected a few years ago when Caro returned to London after living in New Zealand for many years.
They started to meet up regularly to talk about their work and visit galleries. They also hatched a plan to show work together and started to look around for a venue – no easy thing in London – when they chanced upon the Crypt Gallery.
They had both been mulling over the idea of ritual in their practice in quite different ways and the theme just seemed a perfect fit with the space. ‘We were keen to curate a show in response to the building and have the artworks working together with the building so that visitors could experience both the art and the extraordinary location,’ recalls Deborah.
It was a fine balance between having enough artists to create a really rich experience and overcrowding the space. Both artists felt strongly they didn’t want to cram loads of work in and risk reducing the impact of individual works, which would detract from the Crypt’s unique atmosphere. They decided on an additional ten artists selected from an artist call out to make a total of twelve exhibiting artists.
‘Each of the twelve artists approach ritual in very different ways and we were keen to curate a show which highlighted connections between the artworks whilst also giving visitors time to reflect and experience the ancient passageways in the space between one work and the next.’ Caro says.
The experience of working with artists selected from an Open Call was overwhelmingly positive and a fantastic way to make new connections with artists.
Caro and Deborah are planning another show for 2020. Watch this space!
