Hot on the heels of a nationwide lockdown comes the NMIT staff exhibition. Like over-cooked caterpillars finally freed from their cocoons, these teachers have again left their bedrooms behind and have been active in the space where you now stand. The trials of online learning lie at rest—for a moment—as these instructors of Fine Arts, New Media, and Design turn off their teaching duties and instead put on a show of the other work they do. This work’s made in the hours when they are free from the institute—free to dream up, draw, develop, shape and make. And yet, what informs these works? Who teaches these teachers? What words of advice, tender tutelage, or even outright inculcation have gone into the production of these works? These are, after all, questions of learnt lessons and display—and of all places within a staff arts exhibition. Is consciousness in some area in arts and design being raised now in the context of this room? Do we see evidence of a 'necessary understanding' in these works, in this display now on these walls? Thoughts such as these are themselves tied to Marx’s famous question about societal transformation, when he asks us about tomorrow and the new knowledge tomorrow might need, asking `who will teach the teachers? None of this show’s participants, to the best my knowledge, are currently enrolled in any course in the creative arts. Perhaps then it is truly the things—the objects in and of themselves—that are at this point are the true instructors in this room. Is this where these teachers now come to learn? If so, it is a place of ongoing toil and occasional revelation, in the endless hours spent with line, colour, shape and form. Welcome back from the confines of your bubble. We hope you enjoy the show. [Mark Baskett]
