Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
London Metropolitan University
'The Making of the Means', Large sculptural installation at WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, in Brussels with video, audio, live performance, objects, prints, metal structures and crafted objects.
Following my Artist’s Residency at Wiels CAC, I was commissioned to
make a new work for their building and book of the same title. The project,
based on my research into material and immaterial labour, transformed
one floor of the ex-industrial building: the new ‘making’ of the space was
constructed around the conditions of its viewing, derived from my study
of the psychology of waiting spaces and the visual language and signs
employed. I reviewed approaches to the protection of artwork in museums
and galleries along with systems for queue management. ‘The Making
of the Means’ was also developed through fieldwork that investigated
rehearsal spaces, specific work environments and the choreographies that
individuals develop to carry out repetitive tasks.
The installation involved large floor tiles, structures and crafted posters
(both printed and original calligraphy) with enigmatic modernist objects in
the space and a spot-lit vitrine. While borrowing some of the language of
waiting and rehearsal spaces, the objects were carefully hand-crafted and
the posters employed graphic paraphernalia referencing a declaration of
rights, conditions and demands.
The installation involved audio elements, live performance and a looped
video projection. Two musicians played single endless notes, one replacing
the other in the gallery space during day-long live performances. An
actress read scripts featured in the exhibition at a purpose-built lectern.
A short concrete sound played at intervals, taking the basic structure of a
waltz, it was looped and amplified via speakers hidden in the ceiling.
The exhibition and book were concerned with the interrelation of making
and viewing, the gap between the actual and the virtual, between objects
and matter with words and plans. The research interrogated ‘production’,
and work - productive or operative activity, but not toil.
The project contributed to my nomination as an Art Review ‘Future Great’
in March 2013.
