Writing Guidelines for Rationale:

The Curatorial Rationale explains and supports the final exhibition. It is also a chance to

highlight any particular challenges or discoveries along the way, including why these art works

were chosen, the connections among them, and your decisions around presentation and

display.

The examiner will read the Rationale when she looks at the student exhibition slides; it is an

informative and essential part of the exhibition submission.

Word count requirements
SL 400 words max
HL 700 words max

HL students also reflect on the relationship with the viewer and how meaning is communicated
through presentation. ( Exhibition Assessment Criteria Criterion D. curatorial practice).

For some students it is easier to structure the rationale if it is divided it into three parts:

1. Overview, concepts and ideas

You set the stage, so to speak, introducing the viewer to the exhibition, what it is about and what
are the underlying themes or threads.

 What are the concepts, issues or ideas you have explored here and how are they linked
in your work? What experiences have contributed to the making of this work? Have any
particular artists influenced you?

2. Selection of works
The second paragraph can be a general discussion of the works in the show, or you may choose
to list and discuss each piece individually, making connections among them. Maybe there is a
particular piece that is pivotal to the rest of the show and you discuss this one in relation to the
others. This is also the place to discuss any important influences.

 What materials and techniques have you used and why did you choose these? Do the
materials have an impact on the meaning of the work?
 How do you justify your selection of works chosen? What feels important to you?
3. Arrangement and Viewer relationship
The third part of the rationale can address the arrangement of the artworks ( both SL and HL) and,
for HL students only, the relationship with the audience and how the curatorial decisions you made
may contribute to the viewers response.

 How did you consider the arrangement of the works within the space that you have
available?
 Do you have an overall vision for presenting this body of work?
 How does the way the work is displayed, hung, otherwise presented contribute to how it
communicates with the viewer? (only HL)

Writing Tips:
 Be clear and direct in your language, don't try to appear clever or dress it up with
superlatives and grand claims.
 Accuracy and honesty will make a much better impression!
 Describe what you see, refer to physical and material qualities of the work as well as
conceptual.
 Stick to the subject and don't digress into wider philosophical concepts unless they are
clearly relevant to your work.

Guiding Questions for students:

The following questions are aimed at specifically addressing the assessed criteria.

 What are the concepts, issues or ideas you have explored here and how are they linked
in your work? What experiences or artists have contributed to the making of this work?
Refer to specific pieces.

 What materials and techniques have you used and why did you choose these? Do the
materials have an impact on the meaning of the work?

 How do you justify your selection and the arrangement of the works within the space that
you have available?

In addition to the above, HL students also consider the audience response

 How does the way the work is displayed, hung, otherwise presented contribute to how it
communicates with the viewer?
 How would you like it to be received/ perceived by the viewer?
 Do you have an overall vision for presenting this body of work?
 Example HL: 28/30

Humans and urban space

Word count: 700
The body of work presented has been realized with the intention of inspiring a discussion on
how humans interact with the built environment. Literature on urbanism has expressed a concern
of the influence of the built environment on the human condition, with books such as Cities for
People by architect Gehl suggesting that the impersonality of space is the cause for the growing
experiences of alienation in the urban context. Thus, my vision behind the exhibition is to visually
translate the relationship between humans and the spaces we inhabit. The specific works
selected follow a narrative thread, with particular focus on urban solitude, light and its impact on
the human condition and as an element in architecture, and the delicate nature of the built
environment. These three themes form the basis for the conceptual groupings that define this
exhibition, which ease the viewer’s understanding when moving around the curated space. My
works incorporate both representational and graphic elements, using contrasting media such as
oil paint, sculpture and digital print to explore the multitude of ways humans interact with, and
understand urban space.
Given the available space, a curatorial decision was made in thematically separating the
body of work. The layout, which is of semi-circular nature, allows the viewer to organically move
through the conceptual groupings, intended to be from left to right. The isolated sculpture at the
end of the panels, Deconstructed Window, invites the audience to move around to the back side
of the panel where they view the final thematic exploration, namely the fragility of urban space
and material. The graphic motifs and the printed-based media evident in these final works digress
from the largely realistic body of paintings presented at the beginning of the curated space, and
hence their separation guarantees a level of stylistic coherence through the exhibition. Through
this specific placement I hope to create an exploratory journey where the viewer reflects on their
own role within urbanity, their influence on the built environment, but furthermore, the influence of
the material world upon themselves.
My own experience having lived in cities has informed the production of the works in the
first grouping, in regards to understanding behaviour in urban space and the mundane quality of
suburbia. These pieces, such as Connecting Window and Scenes from my Neighbourhood, have
similar frontal and eye level compositions, which force the viewer into the role of the observer -
uncomfortable when confronted with the reality of the banality of urban space. This direct
confrontation encourages the viewer to reflect upon the detached nature of human relationships in
urban fabric.
The viewer, when met with The Song of Space, commences the thematic thread concerning
light and its effect on architectural space. A curatorial decision actively employed in the exhibition
is the use scale as an agency by which to engage the audience, which is experienced most
notably by the audience when viewing juxtaposed paintings Light on Man, Light on Man-made
and The Song of Space. The notable difference in the dimension of the two pieces requires the
audience to actively engage with the curated space, by either moving closer to the diptych or
moving further away to view the much larger The Song of Space, and in doing so, creating a large
visual impact in addition to encouraging the viewer to reflect on the differences between organic
and urban form as revealed by light.
Finally, the viewer is brought to the final thematic thread which explores the delicate nature
of the often perceived robust built environment. By placing these stylistically similar pieces at the
end of the exhibition, the viewer is invited to challenge their views of urban space. The lace-like
qualities of the forms in the prints Light in Space, A floor plan?, and Broken Fencing suggest an
urban environment defined by an intangibility and immateriality, which is further emphasised by
the sculpture Deconstructed Window. This sculpture stands isolated, as to allow the viewer move
around it; an immersive experience where the viewer is encouraged to question their perception
of a common urban fragment.
Overall, the pieces presented all connect by providing an overarching commentary on the
nature of humans in their interaction with urban space.

Example SL: 29/30

Curatorial Rationale
My exhibition relates to the notion of the “multiple” through exploring repetition and self-
organization/emergent systems in natural and human phenomena. I demonstrate repetition in three
main ways—formally, conceptually, and through process—featuring Deleuze’s ‘mechanical’ (exact
reproduction) and also ‘dynamic’ repetition (evolving through time). The title comes from statistician
Edward Tufte’s “small multiples,” a data visualization technique of multiple versions of the same
chart in succession, showing incremental changes or comparisons between them. Working primarily
with collage (magazine, mixed media, video collage) has enabled me to assimilate fragments of
material from different origins, removing information and data from its original context. Collage helps
create order from chaos, but also implicates a certain degree of spontaneity, perhaps generating
surprising or humorous results.
The opening video Same place, different time highlights individual and collective movement in
casual crowds through a layering of frames. Being projected against the wall, the viewer is invited to
walk past and have their silhouette become part of the crowd. Turning the corner, the works
progress from a mostly formal level in Valley Stripes and Sand ripples (series). This focus on self-
organization in nature continues in the first part of Nature/Crowds (diptych), establishing links and
shifting attention to human crowds in the second part of this piece. Concepts of human behaviour
and power of the collective continue in 56 lines, combining drawings made by fifty-six strangers on
the internet. This is followed by how to knit, further exploring self-organizing internet phenomena
through Google search data.
All pieces have formal similarities in the use of repetition and geometric lines. Sand ripples, for
instance, were arranged in evenly spaced rows maintaining use of linear succession, and the
video Same place, different time is looped, intentionally blurring the boundary between start and
end. Othertimes, repetition is imbued heavily in the process itself which I find can be a form of
solace, as in how to knit where the same motion was repeated 33,670 times. The act of repeating is
predictable and comforting where process is prolonged and ending is deferred. All my artworks
share this quality of hypothetically being able to continue and repeat further; increasingly more rows
could be added to Valley Stripes, 56 lines, how to knit, and Sand ripples. Placed side by side in the
exhibition space, I hope for each piece to be viewed alone, but also as a collective—more than the
sum of its parts.