Organised in collaboration with Surface Gallery
Drawing Straws was a series of exhibitions and events at Surface Gallery in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University. Coinciding with the British Art Show 6 and Sideshow in Nottingham 2006. Students from NTU were invited to submit proposals that address, question or play with the idea of selection. The series of short shows aimed to encourage students to adopt a critical or reflective perspective that engages with current debate surrounding curatorial practice. With the arrival of the British Art Show in Nottingham for the first time, it hoped to draw attention to some of the selection processes that have been used for this and other art activities taking place across the city.
The notion of ‘selection’ may draw upon ideas of inclusion/exclusion; or on the nature of trends and passing phases. ‘Selection’ may demand a questioning of subjectivity and personal choices; a reflection on the politics of visibility/invisibility; musing on the implications of Darwinian theory; or an understanding and exploration of the workings of networks; agendas; rules and criteria. Curatorial starting points might examine modes and methods of selection – from childhood games (from drawing straws, to nursery rhymes or playground chants), to a range of tactics or strategies adopted by both modern and contemporary artists and curators who have adopted more cumulative, relational or critical models of curating.
Since 2006 Nottingham Trent's Fine Art department have collaborated with Surface Gallery on an annual series of exhibitions, through which to encourage and celebrate the breadth and diversity of fine art practices within the programme at Trent. In the last two years Surface Gallery has played host to a series of events, exhibitions and projects by students and staff. In 2006 the curatorial premise, Drawing Straws, explored notions of selection and critical forms of curating
