INT:
What is the process of curating like? As you said, there’s about 7000 artworks submitted that need cutting down to 200. How do you go about sifting through that?
JD:
It’s organised by material, paintings, drawings, watercolour, sculpture. So it’s done in sections, because that’s how you give the awards and the feedback. So you have that to go with. We’ve judged a lot before, so we know what’s involved in terms of the volume. We just turned up and we were assigned someone to help us, and we just went off on our own. We didn’t do it together, because otherwise you’re going to have a conversation about so many things and it’s going to take forever. So we just did it solo.
JC:
We also enlisted the help of our selectors.
JD:
Yeah, three days doing that, and then we brought in six of our mates, people we know, who are creative people and who are interested in the project, and we involved them in the process. That’s quite important, because they did their own selections as well. So we farmed it out to other people.
JC:
I think they selected 15 each, or something like that.
JD:
Yeah, about that.
JC:
Still might sneak one in…
JD:
Yeah, we tried to… it was really too strict.
INT:
What really stood out to me [at last year’s exhibition] was the very inventive use of materials. Obviously, materials were quite scarce in prison. I remember the soap carvings and the matchsticks as well. Has there been any particular inventive uses this year round that have really stood out to you?
JC:
Well, for me, there’s some jewellery made out of pieces of vape you know. And what’s yours Jeremy?
JD:
Well, that was the one actually.
JC:
What about the eight-legged one?
JD:
Oh god yes – the eight legged one. There’s a spider made out of hair. I think it’s human hair? Must be human hair. And it’s quite uncanny. Looks like a tarantula, but it’s almost photorealistic, but it’s just made out of bits of human hair and bound together, which is amazing. It’s the right size as well. So that’s got to be, that’s one of my favourite pieces.
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