About

Family Viewing is an episodic project initiated by the artist Jemima Brown, one 1/2 of duo Jemima and Dolly Brown.

In essence, the Family Viewing project is simple. As a means to achieving a series of exhibitions and events Jemima proposes as a starting point a collaborative model of working that falls between the traditional processes and divides – or at least the representation of these – between artists and curators.

Interested in the notion of ‘family’, a strong feature of much of her work and the work of many of the artists whose work she admires, Jemima has proposed a model for a serial (or ‘episodic’) project in which a broad interpretation of the idea of ‘family’ is central. The project was initiated by Jemima during 2005, and grew from a desire to contextualise her artistic practice. As an experiment in curatorial practice it has taken on a life of its own and now exists in parallel to her current work as an artist.

The artists and curators invited to participate in the project not only use the thematic as a starting point or a reflection point, but the relationships built up by these groupings are structured to allow for the kinds of dynamics associated more clearly with ‘family’ interaction (soap operas, human drama, family therapy…) to be more acknowledged, more visible. The aspects of these interactions undeniably exist in more traditional artist-curator-gallery-institution-private collector structures, but are, for whatever reason, usually obscured by a veneer of professionalism.

Family Viewing poses the question whether this is necessary, or merely orthodox. There is no political position to the assumption, merely curiosity at what happens – for artists, curators, galleries and audiences- when this thematic and working process are linked.

Thus, Family Viewing is both process and product. These groupings or ‘families’ of artists and curators will work together to produce projects or ‘episodes’. In effect, each episode becomes a snapshot or family album of the family dynamic created by Jemima with each new family: a new configuration of artists and a new curator for each space hosting the project.