Curatorial Response

Response 1

For my first curatorial response, I chose to do Sagittarius Ponderosa for my play of choice. I had a lot of initial ideas for what to collect for this response. I wanted to find pieces that fit well with the themes and the feeling of the overall play. I also took inspiration from past research projects for my methods of finding pieces that fit well with the play I had chosen.

The first piece that I found was this nighttime timelapse of the night sky posted to YouTube by drewc. I felt that this video really connected to this play in a couple of ways and ties into the generalized theme of the ponderosa forest and time. The video mentioned, to me, helps emphasize the topic we discussed in class about how things are still happening throughout the play and that things don’t just stop when we lose sight of them. I feel that this video helps drive that point home with the motion of the night sky connecting with these ideas that even when no one is watching, the night sky still moves. This was one of the first things to come to mind for me when thinking of art and other mediums that relate to Sagittarius Ponderosa.

The next medium is a photograph by Jennifer B. Thoreson titled "Little Baby”. It is a photograph of a man and a woman sitting on a bed holding each other with a baby in between them whilst their heads are covered in seed pods from a sycamore tree. This photograph speaks to me in a very interesting way in how it relates to Sagittarius Ponderosa. To me it speaks to the way Archer is loved by their family, but they just can’t seem to fully understand how to do it correctly and make Archer happy. To me it very much ties into the end of the play when Archer is yelling at Pops about taking on the new name of Archer, they finally want to be seen as Archer and it’s the first and only time that Archer makes an effort to correct pops and request that they call them Archer. It shows that Archer’s family wants to do what they can to support and be there for Archer, but they are unaware of what Archer is going through emotionally or the transition they are going through. I understand that someone like me, who is a cisgendered straight male, can’t comprehend what it is like for someone who is in the process of transitioning or has transitioned, but I feel that this image can relate to many people’s experiences transitioning.

For my third and final medium I have decided to do a poem by Anne Boyer called “Not Writing”. The poem talks about how the author is “not” writing all these different things and to me it really speaks about how she is missing out on all these opportunities to do amazing things in the world. I feel that the poem could be taken very literal but also could be taken in the opposite manor. For this analysis I will be taking it in the literal sense. I feel that this poem really connects with how Archer takes the whole play to finally confront their family about what name they want to be called. I feel that this play has a lot of moments where characters put off doing things or waiting till the last minute. This is why I think this poem connects well with Sagittarius Ponderosa.

Little Baby, From the series Testament, 16”x20”, Pigment Ink on Fiber Rag, 2014

Response 2

For my second curatorial response, I decided to chose MUD for my play of choice. I have a very long and interesting connection with MUD so I wanted to dive even deeper into. There are many different ways that I could tackle this curatorial response, my overarching goal being that I want to find very abstract and unusual art pieces.

The first piece of art that I found was a song on YouTube titled “pigs in mud“ by the band Gertrude. After listening to this song, I found many connections from this song to MUD. First of all, the glaringly obvious connection to the title of the song. Mae mentions to Lloyd that when he dies he will die like a pig in the mud. The overall song also has a very choppy and disconnected and chaotic feel to it, this connects to the chaotic nature of the household with Mae, Lloyd, and Henry in it. Finally, in the song, there is a female singing about sleeping and dreaming which I feel connects very well with Mae’s dream of being better and going to school and eventually leaving Lloyd.

My next medium is a photograph from Jennifer B. Thoreson titled “Lamentations“. Jennifer was featured in my last curatorial response and I wanted to look at more of their artwork to see if I could find anymore pieces that I feel connect with MUD this time. This piece that I found heavily reminds me of Salisbury University’s past production of MUD which is what my mind instantly goes to when thinking about MUD. The flakey nature of the walls reminds me of the set that was done for our production of MUD. To me, this piece connects to MUD with the unstable nature of the furniture and the walls with the unstable nature of the house in the play. The man underneath the table, to me, connects with this idea that Lloyd relies on Mae to be there for him to help when he doesn’t know what to do. To me, this photo ultimately shows the relationship between Mae and Lloyd very well.

The last piece to my curatorial response is once again a poem. This poem is titled “Into the Mud” by Joyce Sidman. To me this poem really speaks to me about the ending of MUD and the potential future of Lloyd and Henry. The poem talks about how at the end of the day, after your last breath and last sight you enter into the mud. The glaring similarities to the title of the play and the general theme of the poem are fairly obvious. The overall poem talks about the end of your life and how after your last breath and your last sight you sink into the mud and I feel that this connects very well with the concept of MUD overall with Mae wanting to be better for herself and escape the situation that she’s stuck in but Lloyd ultimately ends her life and she is forever stuck in this awful place and that is where her life ends, sinking into the mud.

"Lamentations, from the project Lamentations, 40x40", pigment ink on fiber rag, 2013" - from Jennifer Thoreson, Multidisciplinary Artist at https://www.jenniferthoreson.com/projects/lamentations-2013/lamentations

Source: Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems (Houghton Mifflin, 2005)

Response 3

For my third curatorial response, I choose to do it on the play Untitled Feminist Show by Young Jean Lee. I thought that with having to do my play presentation on Untitled Feminist Show and the very unique nature of the performance, it would give me an interesting challenge with creating a curatorial response for it. I think this will lead me to find very strange and unusual pieces that help boost the very strange and unusual nature of the piece itself.

The first piece I will be covering is a song from the internet famous abstract album Everywhere At The End Of Time by The Caretakers. The specific song I will be covering is B2-An autumnal equinox. The feeling of this piece I feel accentuates the abstract and abnormal nature of Untitled Feminist Show. The vinyl-esq quality gives it almost an eerie feel to the piece but I feel has lots of potential when combined with this play. While many scenes have explicit mentions of what music should be used behind the actors, I feel that Act 1 Scene 4 would take on a new light if paired with this song. It would bring a new level of absurdity and have the audience really try to understand what is truly happening.

The next piece we will look at for my curatorial response is a photograph by Javier Rey titled “Amorphism 77. Color abstract nude photograph.” When I found this piece, it spoke to me in a way very similar to how Untitled Feminist Show spoke to me when I did my first read through. The people in the photograph embracing each other and their identities hidden from view really speaks to its similarity to Untitled Feminist Show. Obviously, the connections with both the show and the photograph having nude people in them is very clear but also sets a very unique perspective at seeing both of these pieces. These pieces show us the audience that nudity and out bodies are something every person on earth has in common. The need to hide them and cover them due to shame and ridicule is very bizarre as we are the only animals on earth to do so.

For my third and final piece of my third curatorial response, I will be discussing a poem titled The Affinity by Anna Wickham. This poem talks about the traditional feminist movement where women were not allowed to do anything without a man there to help them. This poem I feel provides a stark contrast to Untitled Feminist Show by literally showing that men are not needed in any regard for an entire performance. I feel that this poem helps bring to light the past and current struggles of women around the world in needing a man to basically do anything. This poem brings a harsh light to the beginnings of feminism and allows us to then expand into Untitled Feminist Show and allows us to leave the patriarchy behind for a moment and just exist in the present and experience ideas and feeling we have never felt before.

Kirby, Leyland James. B2 - An Autumnal Equinox. Everywhere at the End of Time (Stage 1), LEITER, 2023.

Teasdale, Sara. "The Affinity." Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,

Rey, Javier. Amorphism 77. 2023, 1stDibs