POTLATCH A potlatch is a tradition carried on by many NW coast Indian tribes. The chief would celebrate a significant event (birth, marriage) by hosting a Potlatch. A huge feast would be provided, and gifts such as blankets, etc. would be given to the guests. This gift economy served as both a distribution network for goods and as social cement. Interestingly, the potlatch was not recognized as economic activity by the missionaries who attempted to settle the area, but instead was seen as wasteful and foolish
Every exhibition is a gift of labor, time, creativity, and resources. This project makes explicit what is implicit in every exhibition: recognizing the gallery as a site of gifting, and the artist as creative laborer.
BACKGROUND: Our culture provides us with such an abundance of objects that we routinely face the problem of too much stuff. As an artist, I am confronted with the challenge of how to continue to make things without contributing to the surplus. This proposal addresses both issues. It does this by re-invigorating and adapting two historic tropes: the potlatch and the altered ready made.
I propose to take objects from this stream of surplus, and through skill, labor, and experimentation, re-invent them as artworks. These objects will then be given away, activating a non-monetary model of exchange: the idea of art as a gift.
This project mines and circulates the notion of gift from acquisition to distribution. The artist is both giver and recipient. In this proposal I work with a full cycle of acquisition, production, and re-distribution, all kept rigorously within the gift economy.
HOW IT WORKS: Objects are selected from among unsold items from thrift stores, garage sales and church bazaars, or personal donations solicited via the web. I would pre-screen these donations for interesting or arresting objects: the gallery would not be inundated with dozens of old beanie babies, for example.
The gallery/installation will take its visual cues from a factory test facility—very minimal, clean and organized—the better to highlight the color and variety of the donated objects. These will be placed in the center of the gallery, sorted into clear bins on clean plastic pallets. During the opening, visitors will be invited to select from among these objects and place them onto a low table, marked with the sign, "Inventory to be Worked".
Worktables will be set up in the rear of the gallery. These tables will function as stations for various working processes, which will be used to make the objects into artworks. (In a gallery setting, the available processes will be limited: folding, painting, gluing, cutting, sewing, beading, combining, etc.) These processes will be listed in a worksite sign, along with graphic 'icon' style signs that connote a professional, industrial test lab. During the course of the exhibition, I will use the objects as found object material for artmaking, together with various invited collaborators and visitors who wish to participate.
When the found–object sculptures are finished, they will be displayed on attractive gallery shelves and pedestals. At the end of the project, the audience is invited to take an object as a gift, and to exchange among themselves, so the objects are re-distributed to the community.
Thus the artist and the audience are both recipient and donor.
The Art Potlatch looks ahead to new models of creativity, (for example, the potlatch is often cited as a model for open source development and democratic innovation, even Wikipedia) and reaches backward into traditions of artists participating in informal studio exchanges and visits, and 'the exquisite corpse' tradition of building on what another gives you.
OPERATIONAL NOTES: COLLECTION, MAKING AND REDISTRIBUTION:
COLLECTION:
Items will be solicited from direct donations, as well as through places that receive donations of goods...for example, a church holding its rummage sale can be approached to donate objects that remain unsold.
The donated items are prescreened. Visitors to the opening chose objects from the donations and place them in the “to be worked” area in the studio/lab/gallery.
MAKING: Using the processes outlined above, I, along with invited collaborators and interested visitors, will work on the objects in the gallery, displaying the finished ones as art. This process makes transparent the decision-making involved in studio work, as the artists respond to the materials, limitations, and opportunities presented by each object. Visitors can participate in the making, or simply observe and discuss.
REDISTRIBUTION: During the last part of the exhibition, audience members are invited to take an object as a gift.
CONCEPTUAL NOTES: Several aspects of current thinking and writing about art and its social and economic aspects come together in this proposal: The trend toward process based, collaborative art practices which exist outside of, or parallel to, the standard art world economy. The exhibition can be seen as a form of institutional gifting to the community It relates to interests in DIY, environmental concerns, collective making, cashless economies, and community building. Reenergizes the history of altered ready-mades, and found-object sculpture. Makes transparent the decision-making processes involved in art making, as the artists respond to the materials, limitations, and opportunities presented by each object
POTLATCH A potlatch is a tradition carried on by many NW coast Indian tribes. The chief would celebrate a significant event (birth, marriage) by hosting a Potlatch. A huge feast would be provided, and gifts such as blankets, etc. would be given to the guests. This gift economy served as both a distribution network for goods and as social cement. Interestingly, the potlatch was not recognized as economic activity by the missionaries who attempted to settle the area, but instead was seen as wasteful and foolish
Every exhibition is a gift of labor, time, creativity, and resources. This project makes explicit what is implicit in every exhibition: recognizing the gallery as a site of gifting, and the artist as creative laborer.
BACKGROUND: Our culture provides us with such an abundance of objects that we routinely face the problem of too much stuff. As an artist, I am confronted with the challenge of how to continue to make things without contributing to the surplus. This proposal addresses both issues. It does this by re-invigorating and adapting two historic tropes: the potlatch and the altered ready made.
I propose to take objects from this stream of surplus, and through skill, labor, and experimentation, re-invent them as artworks. These objects will then be given away, activating a non-monetary model of exchange: the idea of art as a gift.
This project mines and circulates the notion of gift from acquisition to distribution. The artist is both giver and recipient. In this proposal I work with a full cycle of acquisition, production, and re-distribution, all kept rigorously within the gift economy.
HOW IT WORKS: Objects are selected from among unsold items from thrift stores, garage sales and church bazaars, or personal donations solicited via the web. I would pre-screen these donations for interesting or arresting objects: the gallery would not be inundated with dozens of old beanie babies, for example.
The gallery/installation will take its visual cues from a factory test facility—very minimal, clean and organized—the better to highlight the color and variety of the donated objects. These will be placed in the center of the gallery, sorted into clear bins on clean plastic pallets. During the opening, visitors will be invited to select from among these objects and place them onto a low table, marked with the sign, "Inventory to be Worked".
Worktables will be set up in the rear of the gallery. These tables will function as stations for various working processes, which will be used to make the objects into artworks. (In a gallery setting, the available processes will be limited: folding, painting, gluing, cutting, sewing, beading, combining, etc.) These processes will be listed in a worksite sign, along with graphic 'icon' style signs that connote a professional, industrial test lab. During the course of the exhibition, I will use the objects as found object material for artmaking, together with various invited collaborators and visitors who wish to participate.
When the found–object sculptures are finished, they will be displayed on attractive gallery shelves and pedestals. At the end of the project, the audience is invited to take an object as a gift, and to exchange among themselves, so the objects are re-distributed to the community.
Thus the artist and the audience are both recipient and donor.
The Art Potlatch looks ahead to new models of creativity, (for example, the potlatch is often cited as a model for open source development and democratic innovation, even Wikipedia) and reaches backward into traditions of artists participating in informal studio exchanges and visits, and 'the exquisite corpse' tradition of building on what another gives you.
OPERATIONAL NOTES: COLLECTION, MAKING AND REDISTRIBUTION:
COLLECTION:
Items will be solicited from direct donations, as well as through places that receive donations of goods...for example, a church holding its rummage sale can be approached to donate objects that remain unsold.
The donated items are prescreened. Visitors to the opening chose objects from the donations and place them in the “to be worked” area in the studio/lab/gallery.
MAKING: Using the processes outlined above, I, along with invited collaborators and interested visitors, will work on the objects in the gallery, displaying the finished ones as art. This process makes transparent the decision-making involved in studio work, as the artists respond to the materials, limitations, and opportunities presented by each object. Visitors can participate in the making, or simply observe and discuss.
REDISTRIBUTION: During the last part of the exhibition, audience members are invited to take an object as a gift.
CONCEPTUAL NOTES: Several aspects of current thinking and writing about art and its social and economic aspects come together in this proposal: The trend toward process based, collaborative art practices which exist outside of, or parallel to, the standard art world economy. The exhibition can be seen as a form of institutional gifting to the community It relates to interests in DIY, environmental concerns, collective making, cashless economies, and community building. Reenergizes the history of altered ready-mades, and found-object sculpture. Makes transparent the decision-making processes involved in art making, as the artists respond to the materials, limitations, and opportunities presented by each object