#4 Andrew Hunt, Slimvolume Poster Publication 2004
2 - 20 February
Preview: Tuesday 1 February 2005, 6.00pm to 9.00pm On view: 2 to 20 December, 12.00am to 6.00pm Wednesday to Sunday
Slimvolume Poster Publication 2004 includes work by: Simon Bedwell, Dustin Ericksen, Dave Beech, Martin Vincent, Kaavous Clayton, Julia Devonshire, Leo Fitzmaurice, Simon Morse, Gunilla Klingberg, Lisa Torell, Paul Kuzemczak, Rob Filby, Peter Lewis, Mark Quinn, Goshka Macuga, Declan Clarke, Simon Morris, Greville Worthington, Olivia Plender, Johanna Billing, Elizabeth Price, Milly Thompson, Harry Pye, Edward Ward, John Russell, David Osbaldeston, Mathew Sawyer, Alex Bowen, Gavin Wade, and Matt & Ross.
For the fourth edition of Slimvolume Poster Publication, fifteen artists have selected an artist each to produce an edition of prints. The collaborators, who are from Germany, Sweden, the US and the UK, utilise a mixture of participatory, language or literary based practices, and have taken things in a direction that at once compromises and delegates the existing curatorial and artistic responsibility of the project. The resulting publication represents an unlikely chain of events that is generated by the similarities, differences and collaborative approaches defined by the prints or posters within it.
An essential part of the annual publishing project is its method of distribution, which operates through the nomination of copies of the publication to individuals and collections in the UK and abroad. The accumulation of each contributor's chosen recipient produces a community of receivers, or an extended family tree, which this year includes artists, writers, curators, theorists, musicians, non-artist artists, friends, and museums.
As a loose bound edition, the publication exists in multiple contexts - the works are placed in the gallery, the street, the archive, on the bookshelf, and can be discarded or disseminated further once received. The recipient of each package is free to separate the works or keep them as a complete set. A quantity of the numbered and signed copies of the publication will be split, with the component parts installed at sites in London and Norwich.
In its form at Redux, the works will be presented as a traditional exhibition, with each print framed and mounted on the wall. The launch will enable visitors to witness the project within the research space on London's Commercial Street, while recipients will be able to collect their copies on the night. The exhibition will run during December and provide the opportunity for visitors to see the edition in this form for a limited period.
An exhibition guide detailing each work will accompany the publication's exhibition. Slimvolume was initiated at the end of 2000 to provide an open space for artists to expand their practice within a tight collective curatorial framework. It is a not for profit organisation / project.
For further information on Slimvolume Poster Publication 2004 and images contact Andrew Hunt: +44 (0)7813 653 309 e-mail mail@slimvolume.org
Slimvolume Poster Publication 2004 is funded by Arts Council England and Norwich School of Art and Design.
Exhibition Guide
Andrew Hunt
Slimvolume Poster Publication
Entering the gallery left to right round the room
List of recipients followed by the front and back cover of the publication.
Simon Bedwell Uh, yeah, O.K., sure
A text based on an initial conversation or telephone call between the artist and the organiser of the project. Bedwell confronts the economic nature of the project by attacking the shifting perception of 'profit' from 'artist' to 'curator', reconstructing the conversation with a critical slant and self-mocking edge. The conversation is deliberately hard to read, having been sprayed over with a stencilled version of the text onto a printed version. The edition varies greatly: while some copies are impossible to read, others are clear, and the poster is produced on half a dozen types of fluorescent coloured paper.
Dustin Ericksen, Rose on Pink
Dustin Ericksen has a friend who works as a printer at the Financial Times, and he asked if he could make a small intervention by inserting a compass or 'rose' onto a page of a single daily edition of the newspaper. The friend agreed and Ericksen provided the rose dial to be inserted. The image made it onto the proof copy of the first edition. Just like an overlay of rose on pink, the ÔroseÕ is initially unnoticeable or invisible.
Dave Beech, I AM SIMPLY A BULLET FIRED BY THE COLNE VALLEY WORKERS AGAINST THE ESTABLISHED ORDER
Two hundred statements beginning 'I am simply a bullet fired by ... '. Includes such variations as 'I am simply a bullet fired by distant contributions' and 'I am simply a bullet fired by fighting back.'
Martin Vincent, Graphs (0-4)
A small booklet constructed from an A3 piece of paper. Once de-assembled, the booklet folds out to larger than its original size. Graphs to be traced inside the booklet include Myth/Fear, Temperature/Idea, Truth/Latitude and Loss/Abstraction.
Kaavous Clayton, Ifwejointogetherwecanbecomeasone.
A series of brass rubbings made from the construction of dozens of screws installed in a piece of wood. The colour changes when the number of the edition meets a multiple of ten, providing fifteen different variations. The title of the edition refers to a major collective effort enacted by a group of people or of the 'total' harmony sometimes involved in collaborative ventures.
Julia Devonshire, AboveTheLaw™
After a recent Watford v Luton game, a fourth round FA Cup tie, which Luton Town won 1-2, a caller to Radio 5's football phone-in referred to the Luton fans, who 'ran amok' on the Watford pitch, as 'the vermin in Burberry.' AboveTheLaw™ name checks their Norwich 'Towny' counterparts: a group of young ladies and gentlemen who regularly commit random acts of violence, spreading sociopathic tendencies among the good folk of the city. Recipients are invited to don the Burberry hats provided for them.
Leo Fitzmaurice, Store Flyer (removal), Kwik Save spring 04
The latest in a series by Leo Fitzmaurice that involve the removal of text from commercial packaging Ð this time a Kwik Save poster with the text removed to leave a number of empty speech bubbles.
Simon Morse, Fund-raiser
A plan view of a massive pie fight at a formal dinner. The trajectory of each pie is traced in a very clear way.
Gunilla Klingberg, 24 hours
Three different ways of representing twenty-four hours in one poster from the Stockholm based artist. One part of the image is a poster from a twenty-four hour shop and another is a design found in India.
Lisa Torell, The Real Souvenir
Lisa's work describes the vertigo she feels at living in an ordinary world, about the desire to animate ones' life in a fantastic way, about the wonder of life wherever you are and whatever you do. To live life at one remove as if in a documentary.
Paul Kuzemczak, Suitable for minor inconveniences or major catastrophes
A moving one this. A screenprint of a phrase that Paul's late dad used quite regularly. As the title suggests, it came in handy for both the minor and major problems in life.
Rob Filby, Iceberg & Co.
One of one hundred and fifty images of Kaavous Clayton's cat walking around on the floor of Norwich Gallery next to one of Rob FilbyÕs sculptures. ItÕs strange how the perspective of the floor mirrored the floor of Redux in its previous installation. The cat showed signs of giving up after about one hundred and twenty photographs.
Peter Lewis, Think Curators Think
An invitation by Peter Lewis - the co-director of Redux - to participate in a project called 'Think Curators Think', a humorous intervention based on the reversal of the notion of the 'artist-curator' and the Ôinvited artistÕ, where tables can be turned and a certain loss of control will result. The project simultaneously contextualises the publication and exhibition and exists as a work within it.
Mark Quinn, FUXUS
A poster for a seminal action by Joseph Beuys. The poster is a fictional rather than appropriated one and Quinn has crossed out his own text that reads 'an exploration of appropriation'. Also erased is the letter 'L' in 'FLUXUS' resulting in 'FUXUS', the name of one of Mark's recent projects.
Goshka Macuga, G M
A drawing of two half horse, half human creatures taken from a scene that appears towards the end of Jean Cocteau's The Testament of Orpheus. In the film, the two figures lift up the dead Orpheus, while in Macuga's version, the figure has been replaced by the initials GM, and painted in a brown wash of colour. The first of a series of drawings of mythological characters with illustrated figures inset with the chosen characters.
Declan Clarke, Tell Speer that I'm as fond of him as ever.
The text in this poster is a quote from Goethe's Gotz von Berlichingen (1773), which translates as 'But he, tell him, he can kiss my arse.' It was the first use of a profanity of that nature to appear in a 'high art' play and caused a stir at the time. The play was influential in developing a new type of European drama, which became known as 'storm and stress'. The text is an enlarged facsimile from a DDR edition published in the late 1980s and refers to an incident between Speer and Hitler. Attempting reconciliation, Hitler sent a memo ending 'Tell Speer IÕm as fond of him as ever'. Speer's response was to quote Goethe's line.
Simon Morris, cet homme est philosophiquement irresponsable / this man is philosophically irresponsible
A double-sided poster that folds out to A2 and contains a text on SimonÕs work in both English and French. The essay details an outline of the project where Morris released 333,960 words out of a car window while travelling at 90mph.
Greville Worthington, Phyllostachys Vivax Aureocaulis Huangwenzhu
A leaf from the tallest bamboo plant in the United Kingdom accompanied by the plant's Latin name and a green and red Japanese style print.
Olivia Plender, The Damned
A cartoon that references imagery from the past to construct a overly romantic and stereotyped picture of life between 'the bohemians', 'Nick, the artist', 'Norman, the art dealer' and 'Deliah, the socialite.'
Johanna Billing, 'It's a party' (outro) from forthcoming 'Sing a song fighter!' CD by Blood Music on Make it happen
A work by Johanna Billing, another Stockholm based artist, this time a musical score by K-J Winqvist from the CD Sing a Song Fighter by Blood Music. Make it happen if Johanna's music label and collaborative project.
Elizabeth Price, The Star
Liz has taken copies of The Daily Star from 3 December 2001, 2002, and 2003, cropped the pages to A3 and printed them with a black star. Her nominee is John Haylett, editor of The Morning Star. The launch date of Slimvolume 2004 is 3 December 2004 - and Liz's contribution references the previous three years of the project.
Milly Thompson, Private View
There's an ambiguity in this image in terms of the fact that the male figure, a character about to attend the private view of his own exhibition, is leaning over with his head in his hands and is probably crying or possibly laughing. The print is about self-consciousness in terms of producing art that's about to be 'shown' to an audience and the relationship of that to 'craftsmanship'in terms of a print run being hand screen-printed with three colours together with the inevitable degrading of the print as it gets further into the run. The last prints, though they're really bad, are valuable in terms of 'human endeavour'.
Harry Pye, Legends of the Pye Family
A story that describes Harry Pye's various ancestors in a fanzine style piece of print. This comes in the form of a family tree or a genealogy that also obliquely implicates the project's connected references and coincidences. Harry has chosen another artist, Edward Ward, who works in the bookshop at the Tate Gallery.
Edward Ward, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE AEROPLANES
The title refers to the one hundred and eighty five aeroplanes that Ward drew for the edition, all of which are included in the one sheet. The aeroplanes were drawn over a long period in the summer of 2004 as Ward worked in the Tate bookshop.
John Russell, Factum I and II
An edition of one hundred and fifty unique collages. The works are united by a text motif which comments on the appropriated advertising and the work's revolutionary potential in the context of the end of art and its status as a commodity within the economic framework of the project. The excessive use of glitter has infected the publication to such a degree that the bottom of its cellophane wrapping acts as a trough to catch the hundreds of loose fragments. The glitter placed on the floor of Outpost refers to these tiny glistening deposits.
David Osbaldeston, Press Release
A text work cartoon Xerox that appears as the mirror image of itself. The title 'Press Release' appears on the back cover in reverse or as being 'flipped'. This is impossible to do with existing metal type: due to the nature of letter press, all of the metal and wooden type already appears in reverse to provide a positive image of the text.
Mathew Sawyer, The Desperate Texts, 'Don't Marry Danny', 1982
A collage based around the song 'Don't Marry Danny' by The Desperate Texts.
Alex Bowen, I got so drunk I pissed on a cushion
Living in Berlin, Alex Bowen makes a living by buying accordions on German eBay, restoring them and selling them for profit on US eBay. An unlikely economic model - the discrepancy between the two versions of the auction site is enough to sustain Bowen.
Slimvolume, Biggest Library yet / An anomaly in a harmony of mathematical precision.
'The biggest library yet' is a line from 'No Bulbs' by The Fall, a song that describes a library or collection of hundreds of stains on the wall of a flat, Similar to the publication's collection of ephemeral prints, this description relates to the Lacanian idea that a 'stain' in an image or picture is an essential key to the 'Real'. The second part of the title quotes The Matrix: Reloaded, in which Neo, Keanu Reeves' character, meets the controller, who tells him that, rather than being a radical or revolutionary element within it, he is integral to the running of the system Ð that he's an essential 'anomaly in a harmony of mathematical precision.' Neo has to choose to weather to believe the controller or to keep his own belief and 'integrity'.
Gavin Wade, Strategic Questions # 39. What is Integrity? Part 2
Gavin invited Matt & Ross to respond to the thirty-ninth question in his series of Strategic Questions. These questions are the same ones that R. Buckminster Fuller published in his Utopia or Oblivion: The Prospects for Humanity in 1966. The second from last question in the series is 'What is Integrity?' After Matt and Ross had produced their edition Ð detailed below Ð Gavin contextualised it with his plan to recall all copies of the publication in a few years to make a huge geodesic dome from them. His nominee is George Lucas.
Matt & Ross, Strategic Questions # 39. What is Integrity? Part 1
Matt & Ross' response to Gavin's proposal was to create a long stream of consciousness text surrounding the question 'what is integrity?' This was written out on large rolls of wallpaper and cut into one hundred and eighty pieces, each revealing a fragment of the whole. Their nominee is Steven Spielberg.
