History part 1: Kaidan

I've been thinking about myself as curator and I thought it would be good to write a history of it all. You need to know where you've been to understand where you are going.

So my first exhibition organised outside of Uni was for Impresaria's Kaidan Short Works Project on at the Storeroom in 2002. I was the assistant designer for the show, which included not only the stage and theatre but the front of house area, the stairwell and the room that held the bar. Kaidan is Japanese for 'ghost', so myself and the desiger, Kathryn Sproul, created huge light shades covered in white old-fashioned clothing. We decorated the whole space, but with what I don't remember anymore. The producer, Anniene Stockton, also wanted an art exhibition as part of the night and she asked me to curate it. So I got in touch with a number of artists I knew, who in turn bought a couple of their friends along and we all created art based on ghosts and forgotten memories for the show. I remember one artist, Sharon Chin, making a huge (wall to floor) paper lantern created from hundred of cigarette papers. I made an empty frame with tattered bits of white rags hung from it and there were a couple of hauntingly beautiful artworks from SaraMae Belle and Ilona Nelson.

I didn't document it as well as I could have, or indeed really at all. In my defence, I did shoot a roll of film of the exhibition itself, but I haven't seen the photos in years and so I think it's pretty safe to say I don't know where they are anymore. So Kaidan drifts gently down the path of memory and away.

Which is sort of fitting now that I think about it.