THEA QUIRAY TAGLE GM: Could you discuss your experience curating AFTER LIFE (we survive) at YBCA, which addresses art and climate change? TQT: I was awarded YBCA’s [Curatorial] Open Call at the end of 2019. This exhibition, AFTER LIFE (we survive), is a continuation of the first exhibition, AFTER LIFE (what remains). In the first exhibition, there were 5 artists who were Filipino, diasporic Asian American, and Indigenous artists from the U.S. whose work helps us reflect on climate collapse and political violence. The Alice Gallery is an artist-run space with a 700-foot intimate gallery, and there were 7 of us who were co-curators of this space; so it was a really lovely independent art show but small as hell in terms of production and size. When I pitched [the exhibition] to YBCA I asked to expand the show by a lot, with the hopes of discussing climate and political issues in a way that made connections back to Bay Area communities and artists. By March [2020] we were planning the exhibition for the second floor galleries, and then everything shut down due to COVID-19. So for 6 months it was really up in the air and I didn’t know if the show was going to be cancelled or held at a later date. At the end of August, my YBCA program lead floated the idea of mounting the exhibition inside, but making it viewable through the exterior glass windows that sprawl around the building. There was less than a 2-month turnaround for me and the 20 participating artists (6 individual artists and 4 collectives) to completely transform the show’s in-person and online components, which includes onlineonly artworks and a virtual 3-D walkthrough!
My goals as an independent curator is to work primarily and intentionally with artists of color and queer artists who don’t have gallery representation and who make work that in many cases is not considered “commercial enough” to be sold. I steward relationships with artists in order to present their work -- I work for the artists, not for institutions. There was immense labor on the part of the artists to transform this YBCA show, and was made possible because they trusted me to hold their work and make sure the institution would present it properly. The core 3 people I worked with at YBCA who held it down – Martin Strickland, Associate Director of Public Life; John Cartwright, Chief Preparator; and Fiona Ball, Curatorial Project Manager – really fought for [the exhibition] institutionally. I was awarded emergency external grants from the Kinkade Family Foundation, which allowed us to better build the online portion and create the 3-D virtual tour. (Continued on next page)
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Coven Intelligence Program, "One two three portions of a secret world/ and soon you'll see a freer world", 2020. Photo by Thea Quiray Tagle
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