The Courtauld Institute of Art’s MA Curating the Art Museum students' annual exhibition, offered online for the first time.
Unquiet Moments: Capturing the Everyday was conceived in response to the 50th anniversary of the departure of the Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages from the General Registry Office at Somerset House. Such an archive records the banner headlines, the life-beginning, life-changing and life-ending moments that mark human experience. But what would an archive look like that instead recorded the fine print: the quiet, everyday moments of transformation and connection that shape human lives?
Artists have responded to and embraced modes of archiving throughout time, creating material records apart from and sometimes unknown to official histories. Unquiet Moments: Capturing the Everyday explores the enduring impulse to record, reflect and connect through everyday life: its small wonders and disappointments, its intimate joys and tragedies.
With major works from the Arts Council Collection and The Courtauld Gallery collection, this digital exhibition spans four hundred years of artistic practice, from the 17th century to the present day. Unquiet Moments: Capturing the Everyday represents the work of 24 artists. These works of art can be visual diaries of personal experience, portraits of families and communities, or traces of loss. They call on us to reflect upon the many ways in which we construct archives of our lives and memories.
Alongside the digital exhibition, Unquiet Moments: Capturing the Everyday will also include an exciting programme of events, including artists’ talks and film screenings, hosted in collaboration with The Courtauld Research Forum and Somerset House.