Theory.Practice.Exhibitions.
Our Story
Tasked with the job of making an archive of uncollected data of the late Margaret Ralston Gest, students of John Muse's Theory and Practice of Exhibitions class envisioned, collaborated, and created an exhibition to highlight the beauty and greatness of Gest.
It happened very serreptitiously. One Friday, our professor, John Muse, asked the class if the project of taking a collection of unorganized paintings from Magill library and turning them into an exhibit seemed appealing. A month into the semester, the challenge to take the learned theory and put it into praxis excited us. We said yes, unaware of the world we were to unmask.
​
Poster advertising for the pop-up exhibitions
Uncontrolled data is the word to describe the collection of Margaret Gests paintings in Magill library. All of this information is catalogued and stored in the archives of special collections. Digging into the collection, we asked ourselves, "so what do we do with all of this?" Exploring deeper into the realms of Gest's work and life, it became essential that our exhibition monument her life.
Gest's paintings contained a sense of timeless beauty. All of our choices in the process of making the exhibit were to revere the beauty of her life and work.
Another element central to our exhibition was altering the perception by altering contexts. As exhibitors, we wanted to expand the perception of Margaret Gest's work to mean more than landscapes, but also represent spaces of intimacy, duality, and wonder. As students, we examined Magill and looked for ways to bring out new ways of interpereting the space. The task pushed us to use convential spaces unconventionally, reviving attention to spaces rendered hidden by the library.