Keg de Souza: Common Knowledge and Learning Curves

Common Knowledge and Learning Curves is the first Australian institutional solo exhibition by Keg de Souza, touring to Griffith University Art Museum from Artspace, Sydney.

The exhibition explores de Souza’s ongoing interest in the ways we teach and learn, and how place and social status can affect both. The exhibition seeks to redress traditional systems of knowledge exchange by integrating democratic dialogue, lived experience, inquiry learning, solidarity and unlearning.

With a focus on the ways in which space informs teaching and learning, de Souza utilises the familiar aesthetics of a classroom in unexpected ways. Traditional schoolroom objects such as chalkboards, uniforms, award ribbons and venetian blinds are deconstructed and employed as architecture to divide the gallery into temporary functional spaces.

In the spirit of play and experimentation, visitors are invited to interact with these architectural and sculptural forms, ensuring the exhibition becomes a space where ideas and actions can emerge through critical and collective interaction. This dynamism offers possibilities for visitors to contribute to an ever-changing learning environment that prioritises marginalised and minority voices in traditional modes of education.

De Souza’s temporary architecture creates a playful, mutable setting to host a series of dialogical events throughout the duration of the exhibition.

These public events offer an opportunity for deep thinking about pedagogy and the relationship between place and the learning process. Community members and organisations will lead discussions, host tours and share knowledge as part of the exhibition, acknowledging lived experience as a highly valued resource.

These temporary spaces within the exhibition are also open for use by educators, collectives or students to occupy for conversation, classes or self-directed reading groups.

Image: Keg de Souza, Common Knowledge and Learning Curves (installation view), 2018.