antifreeze

This work was part of a collaborative project and formed part of an AirSpace proposal, which was accepted, for the AntiFreeze art boot fair in Manchester on 4th July 2009 alongside the Chips building. The event was put on by Contents May Vary. Here is an extract of their intention: "ANTIFREEZE is an exhibition about the high-end art market delivered within the format of low-end trade. It is the grass-roots answer to hugely commercial art fairs allowing independent and non-commercial practitioners to explore ideas of value, exchange and independence with artists and artist-led organisations responding to the physical, social, economical, geographical and literal situation." The AirSpace proposal : "As a group we are interested in exploring the notion of value exchange. We have made works in response to the Sunday Car Boot Fair that happens weekly in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, on the same street as the AirSpace Gallery. There are all types of people to be found at the fair, and as a group we infiltrated the site and made work in response to the people, objects and conversations to be found there. The finished pieces highlight themes of resourcefulness (working with available resources), and the fact that other peoples junk and waste can be re-used and made into something useful, that can be appreciated once again and put back on the market. Other themes include ideas of trade, waste, environmental concerns, the importance of exchange in its broadest sense and the ability to make and sell products in the recession. Questions about the value of objects come to mind i.e how antiques and art are valued (what makes something precious and valuable- it's age, the artist/maker, the materials it's made from?), and whether rubbish/ found materials can become more valuable when put in the context of 'art'." I did the collaboration with artist Anna Francis whose idea was to ask for the cheapest item from a selection of stalls. I wanted to do a sound piece capturing the fabric of voice and so it made sense to use her question "What is the cheapest item on your stall" as the pivot for the recording together with the question "Where did this come from?" to expand the exchange. And so the disc 'Cheap Talk' was born. The items bought were then used in our separate pieces. You can see my offering in the photo, the tag line being "the instability of cheapness" and the almost valueless items framed and turned into art as a Limited Edition and provenance confirmed with Genuine Boot Sale item. The 'cheap talk' disc being part of any exchange of object. The event turned out to be a funny, inventive play on the idea of a boot sale of art that celebrated the ingenuity of exchanges between people over the cold pricing of the market. The analogy for these kinds of event is a sort of chatter where ideas are exchanged lightly, but from committed engagements and open to being taken into deeper stuff.

music off/on

  this bar is traversed and adjoined by animations that are a detail of 'the instability of seriousness 1' a digital installation - click and go