This project, a comic book, was one of the 5 finalists for the 2011 Frieze Art Fair EMDASH award.
Written Treatment. The proposed work is an amplification of the fair and its potential meanings across different levels of reality. The epileptic segue of ideas and events in the comic should not be seen as amounting to a metaphor or analysis of the fair. It is a calculating machine attendees can use as an unconventional guide for thought.
The comic is site-specific, but in no way time-specific, floating freely between the past, present and future. Bedded in its own science fictional logic, the comic is inhabited by a variegated cast of characters. Despite their apparent absurdity, at times they discuss in all seriousness their ideas about technology, economics and philosophy in relation to the fair.
The central character is a squirrel, a peripatetic inhabitant of Regent's Park and a kind of camera through which we see each narrative vignette unfold. Some of these will take place with dialogue, some without. Some will be brief and other extensive. A list of preliminary scenarios and characters the squirrel will witness:
• Jarvis cocker, Gwyneth Paltrow and Zaha Hadid looking at the fair.
• Lady Gaga discusses Marina Ambramović
• Darth Vader looking at the fair – is concerned about ‘fair trade’ certified art.
• Gottfried Leibniz looking at the fair – see’s the fair in terms of pure mathematics.
• Dan Graham discussing the Frieze Art Fair with Dan Fox
• Various brief cameos by artists that will be exhibiting at the fair.
• A worm and a wasp waxing philosophical.
• A minor but horrific supernatural event is taking place throughout the whole fair: no paint will dry.
• A UFO like array of Donald Judd’s descend on the fair, they are from Marfa, Texas. A cult develops around their appearance.
• Economist Jeremy Rifkin discusses Cognitive Capitalism.
• Curator Raimundas Malasauskas, who I have worked with before, will be present in the comic and he will be invited to script his interaction with others.
• Art dealers trying to sell Michael Jackson work.
• Julian Assange is dancing, also talks about how narratives are formulated in the media.
• Artworks telling jokes, some humorous, but mostly they are A-logical nonsense.
• Cleaners entering / exiting via vortex’s behind the fake walls of the fair. Jarvis Cocker will accidentally slip into one of these vortexes.
• Art dealers using matter transfer app’s on mobile devices to beam sculptures around the world- An instance of copyright infringement takes place via the use of this technology.
• The apes / proto humans from the opening sequence of Stanley Kurbrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey enter the fair in search of minimalism.
• Science writer and futurist Bruce Sterling discusses technology and the future of the object.
• Artworks are infected by a Nano-virus that changes them into translucent jelly.
• A digression into the story of the JFK memorial on Marylebone Rd, paid for by Sunday Telegraph readers in 1965.
This project, a comic book, was one of the 5 finalists for the 2011 Frieze Art Fair EMDASH award.
Written Treatment. The proposed work is an amplification of the fair and its potential meanings across different levels of reality. The epileptic segue of ideas and events in the comic should not be seen as amounting to a metaphor or analysis of the fair. It is a calculating machine attendees can use as an unconventional guide for thought.
The comic is site-specific, but in no way time-specific, floating freely between the past, present and future. Bedded in its own science fictional logic, the comic is inhabited by a variegated cast of characters. Despite their apparent absurdity, at times they discuss in all seriousness their ideas about technology, economics and philosophy in relation to the fair.
The central character is a squirrel, a peripatetic inhabitant of Regent's Park and a kind of camera through which we see each narrative vignette unfold. Some of these will take place with dialogue, some without. Some will be brief and other extensive. A list of preliminary scenarios and characters the squirrel will witness:
• Jarvis cocker, Gwyneth Paltrow and Zaha Hadid looking at the fair.
• Lady Gaga discusses Marina Ambramović
• Darth Vader looking at the fair – is concerned about ‘fair trade’ certified art.
• Gottfried Leibniz looking at the fair – see’s the fair in terms of pure mathematics.
• Dan Graham discussing the Frieze Art Fair with Dan Fox
• Various brief cameos by artists that will be exhibiting at the fair.
• A worm and a wasp waxing philosophical.
• A minor but horrific supernatural event is taking place throughout the whole fair: no paint will dry.
• A UFO like array of Donald Judd’s descend on the fair, they are from Marfa, Texas. A cult develops around their appearance.
• Economist Jeremy Rifkin discusses Cognitive Capitalism.
• Curator Raimundas Malasauskas, who I have worked with before, will be present in the comic and he will be invited to script his interaction with others.
• Art dealers trying to sell Michael Jackson work.
• Julian Assange is dancing, also talks about how narratives are formulated in the media.
• Artworks telling jokes, some humorous, but mostly they are A-logical nonsense.
• Cleaners entering / exiting via vortex’s behind the fake walls of the fair. Jarvis Cocker will accidentally slip into one of these vortexes.
• Art dealers using matter transfer app’s on mobile devices to beam sculptures around the world- An instance of copyright infringement takes place via the use of this technology.
• The apes / proto humans from the opening sequence of Stanley Kurbrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey enter the fair in search of minimalism.
• Science writer and futurist Bruce Sterling discusses technology and the future of the object.
• Artworks are infected by a Nano-virus that changes them into translucent jelly.
• A digression into the story of the JFK memorial on Marylebone Rd, paid for by Sunday Telegraph readers in 1965.