Should Curators Resist Over-Explaining Art?

I’m torn on this question

Alia Farid, Chibayish (2022). Still from the film.

Here’s a question. How much explanation should we be given about artworks in a gallery? It’s something I think about a lot when I visit exhibitions. This week I went to the National Museum in Cardiff to see the biennial art prize Artes Mundi. I have to say I walked quite quickly through the presentations of two of the three shortlisted artists on show there. And that’s because there was very little context provided to interpret their work, and nothing about it grabbed me visually.

And then I reached Alia Farid’s installation. Farid is an artist who works across different media, and her presentation consists of a sculptural installation of over-sized plastic water containers and a 15 minute film.

Installation view, Alia Farid, In Lieu of What Is (2022)

Gallery-goers are given this explanation of her work:

Sculptural works investigate the mismanagement of natural resources and the impact of extractive industries on the land, ecology and the social fabric of southern Iraq and Kuwait, while video works create intimate portraits of individuals as they weave together social connections to resist and overcome adversity within these contexts and the…