The Evolution of a Curator: Navigating my Masters Project
- Written byMadison Hough, MA Fashion Curation and Cultural Programming student for Centre for Fashion Curation
- Published date 14 April 2025
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Earning a Master’s degree is no small feat, especially within such a condensed timeframe. The Master’s Project, in particular, feels like the defining moment of this journey—a career-shaping decision made under immense time pressure. For me, this project wasn’t just an academic exercise; it was an opportunity to define myself as a curator, researcher, and practitioner. Perhaps I placed too much weight on it. Or perhaps I recognised the rare chance to fully immerse myself in a passion project of my own making—one that could shape my future. Opportunities like this don’t come often, and I wasn’t about to let it slip away. The pressure to choose a topic encapsulating my academic journey while setting me up for my professional future was overwhelming. With tight deadlines, self-reflection felt like a luxury. Looking back, I might have done things differently, but that, too, was part of the learning process—an essential step in my evolution as a curator.
I joined the MA Fashion Curation and Cultural Programming course at the London College of Fashion to challenge myself as a practitioner. My background in Socio-Cultural Anthropology and International and Public Affairs gave me confidence in academic research, but I struggled to translate that knowledge into practical exhibition design and curation. I wanted to nurture my artistic and creative side, so I actively sought guidance—particularly from lecturer Daniel Caulfield Sriklad, whose lectures on embodied practice left a lasting impression. By a stroke of luck, he became my advisor on my final project.
Initially, I gravitated toward a traditional dissertation—it felt like the safer, more familiar option. I had written an undergraduate honours thesis and knew I could produce a strong academic paper. But deep down, I realised this was a way of avoiding the challenge I truly needed. Daniel saw it, too. That’s why I pivoted from my original proposal, which centred on ethnographic research on my case study, State of Fashion: Ties that Bind 2024 Biennale.
Dismantling Tradition Gallery View from the State of Fashion: Ties that Bind 2024 Biennale
After four immersive days at the Biennale, I realised my project couldn’t be a conventional dissertation. My attempt at conducting an autoethnography felt deeply personal, calling for a more reflective and experimental approach. Back in London, I spent weeks engaging with photographs, memorabilia, field notes, journal entries, and voice recordings—experimenting with ways to interpret and express my experience. A practice-led approach allowed research and creative experimentation to unfold simultaneously. Slowly but surely, a concept took form.
Initially, I approached the Biennale with the research question: Has the State of Fashion Biennale lived up to its curatorial responsibility in addressing fashion’s role in environmental degradation and reimagining the future of the pluriverse? This question stemmed from my understanding of the social responsibility of fashion curators, particularly in confronting the environmental crises of the Anthropocene – the unofficial geological epoch of our time, referring to the most recent period in Earth’s history characterised by human impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems (National Geographic). My anthropology and social activism background influenced my desire to explore how decolonial fashion discourse could reshape curatorial practice, challenging the destructive legacy of the global Fashion system— referring to Fashion with a capital F, as inherited by the West and imposed on the Rest (Fashion Act Now). While dress is a universal practice, ‘Fashion’ is culturally-specific to the dominant Eurocentric economic system. The ‘F’ is is capitalised to highlight Fashion’s ties to growth and capitalism, differentiating it from other dress systems worldwide.
While this question remained foundational, my experience at the Biennale shifted my approach. Rather than answering my initial research question, I found myself developing a new mode of curatorial practice—what I termed Post-Curation. The post-curator emerges in response to the limitations of traditional curatorial practices constrained by institutional boundaries and the fleeting nature of exhibitions. Unlike conventional curators, the post-curator operates independently of institutional restrictions, operating at the confluence of curation, criticism, and activism to extend the impact of exhibitions beyond their physical and temporal confines. Adopting a relational activist approach, post-curators use dialogue as a tool for transformation and healing, critiquing exhibitions not simply to assess their success but to envision alternative curatorial practices that sustain audience engagement and foster a more equitable future. By amplifying non-institutional voices and recognising the visitor as a crucial actor in the realisation of exhibition meaning, post-curation seeks to maintain the social impact of exhibitions and prevent them from becoming static in the archival record. In doing so, post-curation reinforces exhibitions as dynamic, participatory spaces. Over the following months, I explored how to realise post-curation in practice.
Post-Curation website
The support I received throughout my MA pushed me beyond my limits, allowing me to explore my curatorial practice while making meaningful contributions to the field. Refining my research into a website portfolio—showcasing the development and application of Post-Curation—helped me envision this project as a foundation for my career. At the core of my practice are creative writing responses or Meditations—embracing the complexities and contradictions of exhibition experiences. By presenting these Meditations alongside other experimentations, I aim to make visible the iterative process of practice-led research that defines my work.
For the London College of Fashion Graduate Showcase, I presented this interactive website to the public for the first time. Initially, I felt compelled to edit it down—some Meditations felt unpolished, too raw, too vulnerable. My project was still evolving, and I feared exposing it at such an early stage to an audience of critics. Ultimately, I realised that Post-Curation is precisely about embracing vulnerability—using personal, human experiences in exhibitions as a catalyst for dialogue and relational activism. Resisting the instinct to censor myself became essential to staying true to the philosophy of my practice.
London College of Fashion Graduate Showcase MA FACCP Gallery View
Complementing the showcase, I participated in a podcast with fellow student Emma Wichert, whose work explored decayed dress as a curatorial tool for documenting memory and loss. This conversation became a valuable space for reflection, allowing us to look back on our journeys while considering the future of our practices. Exhibited alongside our displays, the podcast offered insight into our growth and the ways we supported each other through what was, at times, a solitary process. It highlighted the importance of collaboration, shared learning, and the connections that shaped our MA experience.
Looking ahead, I plan to explore Post-Curation further, applying it to future exhibitions and experimenting with new creative outputs. I will present my research at conferences, including the Eighteenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, in Zaragoza, Spain, and seek opportunities to develop and share my work through other platforms and collaborations.
Photos by Madi Hough, 2024
Read Madi Hough's review of The State of Fashion Biennale 2024