Clifford Chance
Pride Without Borders: Paul McDonald's Curatorial Statement
The role of a curator is one of great privilege and trust. It is one of the most rewarding, satisfying and yet, at times, stressful parts of my practice as an artist.
Firstly, I would like to thank each artist for trusting me to present their works in this exhibition: Kim Leutwyler, Dylan Mooney, Ratul Alam, David Charles Collins, Todd Fuller, Midori Goto, Jake Simon, Tom Luscombe, Allan Arcilla, Mel Fitzpatrick, and Jessica Johnson. The artists presented to you are driving change and acceptance through their artistic practices. Their works are creating an important dialogue within our community while engaging new audiences outside of our community. Some aspects of the works are celebratory whereas others reflect or hint at the challenges we face.
Discrimination and stigma is something that most people in our community have experienced or witnessed personally for perceived violations such as showing our ‘true colours’ and our love for one another in a public space. However, our responses and resilience to such acts is what brings us together and historically created our strength. We have lost many, yet we have danced, cried, hugged, become united and fought and marched together for change and equality. But we still have a long way to go.
When curating this exhibition for the Arcus Community at Clifford Chance, I considered this and many aspects of our journeys when researching potential artists. I wanted an exhibition which presented both established and emerging voices, showcasing our strength, boldness, joy, diversity, humour and of course pride.
One of the great joys of this role is discovering new artists, whose work stops and makes me think and challenges my own experiences. This is what good art and artists do, we learn from them and grow as people and a community.
I drew upon my lived experiences when creating the flow of the works and I invited an artist to create a ‘soundtrack’ to the exhibition. The artist spent time with the works, read about the artists and responded by listening and selecting music which talked to her when looking at each work.
Again, I thank each artist for trusting me with their work. I thank the whole team at Clifford Chance for this opportunity and supporting the artists and our community through this event. It has been a pleasure.
