Tulika Ahuja: On Curating For Today's Audience (And Their Attention Spans)
Emerging curator Tulika Ahuja is the founder of the young art consultancy Mama Magnet, known for putting on shows that are playful and engaging. Here, she shares what shapes her practice, as well as the artists she recommends.
“To me, an important gap that a curator fills is that between artist and audience,” says Ahuja, who founded and runs the near two-year-old art consultancy Mama Magnet. Her forte? Curating unique experiential art encounters for a wide audience.
READ MORE: A Day In The Life Of Independent Art Curator Tulika Ahuja
Take Inner Like The OutAR, a memorable 2021 installation that immersed visitors within an audio-visual simulation of the natural world using augmented reality technology. A separate room was transformed into a forest complete with foliage, scents and a custom soundtrack by the Singapore electronic artist Intriguant to enhance the whole experience.
An installation view of Inner Like The OutAR, a fun and layered multi-sensorial exhibition Ahuja curated for last year's Singapore Art Week.
Ahuja makes it a point to always actively work with an audience in mind, which explains the multiple sensory touch points and other ways of encouraging interaction signature to her shows. These help audiences better connect with the works or at least remember the programme beyond a snap on their phones – especially in an era of short and jumpy attention spans, she says.
The 28-year-old – who has a degree in communication studies with a minor in art history, and got into curating when working at the multidisciplinary creative studio Kult – has an equally relatable approach when it comes to conceptualising a show.
“I’m driven first to the narrative – whether this comes from an artist or is borrowed from music, a book, film or observations of society and the times,” she explains.
READ MORE: This Art Project Wants To Buy Your Happy Memories
Check out the results of what she’s been into and dreaming up this month, when she debuts two shows for Singapore Art Week: Happy House at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, a multimedia, multi-artist experience that explores Singaporeans’ relationship with happiness; and the AliWALL Festival at Aliwal Arts Centre, which boasts activities that aim to encourage visitors to reconsider the state of urban living today and in the future.
On the role of a curator today, she says: “I think everyone is or can be a curator. The role has expanded to include anyone who has decent taste that others also enjoy. ”
Below, Ahuja shares with us her curation process and the emerging artists she recommends.
"Art in the Park Philippines is an annual art fair that takes place in an outdoor park. It’s very accessible not just for anyone to visit, but for artists and collectives to set up booths and connect with collectors directly.
Krack! Studio is a collective of artists living around Indonesia and in Sydney. They have their individual practices, but come together as the ‘Kracks’ when creating together. This is collaboration in its purest sense to me, and it’s especially impressive because their works are self-aware and driven by a love for Indonesia even when they are making socio-political statements about the country.
There’s also the Cebu-based Tropical Futures Institute, which I admire for its research-backed approach to curating and organising exhibitions
NuArt Sculpture Park in Bandung which is like an institution to me, primarily exhibiting the works of sculptor Nyoman Nuarta in a very large, open space. This is a great example of an artist’s success story in my eyes – Nuarta is still very much alive and practicing his art, and has managed to build a legacy for himself during his lifetime. The sculptures are also pretty progressive and contemporary.
The Irregulars Alliance is an independent organisation of creatives operating from New Delhi, India who are creating pretty exciting opportunities for young artists using a community-first, anti-white wall thinking. They’ve done factory building takeovers with art fairs, zine fests, multimedia art and I believe have now started printing a dedicated art and design newspaper."
"Before I was a curator I was an assistant curator, and even before that I was a project executive, writer, and an intern in Design and Communications... the first exhibition I curated was for my mom in 2014 — she’s an acrylic and watercolour artist, and also an animal activist.
As a daughter, I understood the passion in her works, and used writing as a way to bridge her art to audiences. For a long time I thought doing art wasn’t cool, only because it was so accessible to me — I’ve grown up with art classes since before I could even speak sentences.
It was only in university, when I got exposed to more contemporary expression through films, photography, techno music, album art covers etc. that I started taking an active interest in storytelling, art and culture."
"There is a huge demand for curated experiences in recent years, as opposed to mass, cookie-cutter ones. In this regard, I think everyone is a curator. The role has expanded to include anyone who has decent taste that other people enjoy.
Another change is the expansion of mediums – with Covid-19, curating a digital show became more normalised than ever before. Which also opens up a global audience.
While there’s a greater number of curated digital experiences today, what has not changed is the foundation of needing to approach creativity, by handpicking artists, framing with writing and with a keen understanding of audience attention spans."
"Gen Z curators are tapping on a younger network of artists and bringing a degree of freshness to the scene. I think they’re also not limited by the standard expectations of an art gallery show — they’re experimental in their approaches and the presentation methods they use to showcase artists, collectives and those who identify as non-artists."
"Shows that have an added communicative layer between the artist and the audience, whether this is felt as an experience, or through text, lighting, sound, or an audience activity. A well-curated show supports the artist in framing their works – literally and metaphorically, elevating and extending it, but also adding another layer of interpretation.
It should also have good writing. Curare, the Latin root word of curate, means to care about something. A well-curated group show should also have a good, complimentary selection of artists that support in bringing the curatorial intentions to life."
"A lot of independent artists have rented studios in the past year, and this has created more spaces with unique characteristics scattered around the country. There’s also more room to collaborate, physically meet, chat, ideate and create things. The drawback is that rent is still relatively expensive. But in turn, it is in some way creating a culture of paying for artworks, experiences, merchandise and so on.
There’s definitely more support for the arts as compared to pre-Covid-19, which is encouraging. It's been positive for me so far starting an arts consultancy independently, but it doesn’t stop here – I’ve been thinking about arts sustainability and the experience economy."
"I have two shows taking place during this year's Singapore Art Week: Happy House at #05-04 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, as well as AliWALL Festival at Aliwal Arts Centre.
Happy House is a hybrid curatorial exploration where the narrative starts online @happyhouse.sg, and continues to build till we encounter the user offline at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. It’s an enquiry into what happiness looks like today, driven by Singapore’s complicated relationship with it. Happy House is an opportunity to use Instagram as not just a marketing or research tool, but also as a digital vault of happy memories.
In the lead up to the physical show, we’re treating happiness itself like a consumer good by offering a $1 reward to anyone who sends us happy photos/videos. At the physical exhibition, we’re presenting experiential audio-video installations that speculate hacks for happiness.
AliWALL Festival 2022: The Dreamer is a project organised by Arts House Limited and held at the Aliwal Arts Centre (pictured), where I’ve collaborated with tenants, artists and producers who specialise in visuals, movement and sound to create activities at the Centre. The programmed activities include a participative mural and an immersive 4D experience, which are themed on imagining worlds of fantasy and reality."
Photography Phyllicia Wang Art Direction Jonathan Chia Hair Linh/Itto+Lim Makeup Kenneth Chia, using Nars
A version of this article first appeared in the Jan/Feb 2022 Art & Music: The Analogue Edition of FEMALE