Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Cumbria
An Ordinall of Alchimy
Collaborative research based practice project directed by Professor Robert Williams and US artist Mark Dion.
An Ordinall of Alchimy was a research commission from the American art magazine Cabinet, and was the inaugural project for a series of commissions known as the $999 Project. This project was directed by artists Robert Williams and Mark Dion and supported by graduate students from American institutions such as the Chicago Art Institute and Columbia University.
The outcome of the project was the installation of a cabinet-of-curiosities built to house a collection of objects sourced exclusively from Ebay, using a donated sum of $999. Part of the conceit was to specifically investigate alchemical themes of transmutation as metaphors in the exploration of value, commodity, market and enlightenment.
The Alchemist’s furnace, the Athanor, became the perfect metaphorical vehicle to house the collections. The model was based upon the available literature, referencing such images as Manget’s 1702 Man, Alchemy & the Cosmos, Michael Mair’s Tripos Aureus of 1618 and Norton’s Ordinall of Alchimy itself.
The focus of the research enquiry was to explore issues of value and economics in the face of the financial crash of 2008, particularly with reference to cultural expectations and the financial functioning of the art world. These issues were discussed in depth at the panel discussion at Cabinet on 27.3.10. Following a second exhibition at the Slought Foundation, a highly esteemed art institution which focuses on art practice as a vehicle for social and political discourse, which foregrounds practice that is collaborative, discursive, participatory and critical, An Ordinall of Alchimy was put back onto Ebay. It failed to meet the reserve price and remains unsold. The conclusion to the project mirrors well the themes and issues under investigation and explored publically at the panel discussion. It seems that we have alchemical process in reverse, where gold might very well be turned back into prima materia.
