Things of the Least: interpretive publication

Things of the Least: interpretive publication accompanies the exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery. The publication was led by the whole team liaising with designer Ashleigh Armitage to find a form that carried the voices of all project participants and gave visitors an insight into the research that formed, and was undertaken through, the exhibition.
The exhibition draws on the material encounters, creative responses and priorities of children under three to challenge practices of exhibition-making. Shaw was co-I and lead artist, occupying a critical role in bringing together the practices of artists, gallery educators, early years researchers and designers to initiate a novel form of collective practice research.
The research and exhibition were funded through the first AHRC Exhibition Fund pilot and developed in collaboration with Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University and Sure Start. The research was co-produced with nine artists; four researchers; Manchester Art Gallery teams including curatorial, exhibitions, gallery education; and 2 early years settings. We collaborated with families of children under three at Platt Hall, Manchester Art Gallery and a Home Office hotel for refugee and asylum-seeking families.

The inquiry focused on the Mary Gregg Collection of domestic artefacts and toys from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries- small, handmade and fragile artefacts that are difficult to display safely. Artists worked directly with babies to distil qualities from the artefacts, which were then transformed into an exhibition. Display brought the objects into new proximity and extrapolated qualities to generate new and ongoing physical interaction with audiences.

By integrating research, community participation and artistic practice, Things of the Least pioneers new approaches to inclusive, participatory and decolonising exhibition-making, offering new avenues for exhibition-making that do not separate research and outcome, production and display, artistic research and other disciplines, or babies and other audiences.