t h e a r t s u p e r m a r k e t

Some fun news; been invited to take part in another exhibition hosted by Scaffold Gallery in Manchester. The title is ‘How To Get Rich Quick’, and each artist is invited to make a piece of work in response to one of the ways to get rich that they have compiled into a list.

We’ve finally decided on our work we’re going to exhibit in the show with everyone from CSM. We’re going to re-make ‘is here alright?’ (but bigger and better than before). This is a work where there are a selection of art-shaped packages that look as if they’ve just been dropped off in preparation for an exhibition but are yet to be unwrapped. The work could therefore be anything that could fit into the packages. Little do the audience know they are merely empty or full of nothing more than rubbish. Along with the parcels is a delivery note to ‘William T Cost’ our designated fake artist that we use on occasions such as these. An additional aspect of this is that half way through the opening, we are going to tear open the boxes to reveal that in fact nothing lies inside. The debris will then be left for the remainder of the show.

An idea we’ve been considering recently is this notion of the snow-globe. We’ve always been interested in the notion of the souvenir and especially the snow-globe since it continues to be applicable no matter if it’s for a family holiday to Paris or a drunken, STI infused trip to Kavos. An object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it describes everything, which is why the idea of a souvenir is so intriguing because it’s actively doing this. However, a souvenir tends to be an object that is collected or purchased and transported home by a traveler as a memento of a visit. The object itself may have intrinsic value, or simply be a symbol of past experience. Without the owner's input, the symbolic meaning is invisible and cannot be articulated. We could create our own places and our own memories and insert them into this world. Making memories that would otherwise not exist.

Another idea for a work relates to the 1985 film ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’. The basic story is that a New Jersey housewife spices up her boring life by reading personal ads, especially a series of them being placed by a mysterious denizen of New York City named Susan (who is played by Madonna). The two main characters are polar opposites, one a quiet housewife, the other a free-spirited man-eater. They end up swapping places after a bump on the head causes memory loss in the former. But the defining factor causing them to re-arrange their identities is this amazing jacket that Susan wears. The jacket becomes a character in its own right and is from then on is this symbol of identity and a metaphor for the idea that we’re all assuming different identities all the time. The André Berthiaume quote ‘We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin’ is something else which relates strongly to this idea about character (or lack of). So the idea was to have this jacket slung over the back of a chair, or on a coat hook in a gallery, almost going unnoticed but still being there as this embodiment of a shift in identity. And it is this shift which is important; no one has assumed it therefor it is still open and almost waiting for its next body.