Michael, What, How, Why?

‘Something there is that does not love a wall’.

A series of sculptural interventions into the temporary architecture of an art education institution. These pieces usually disappeared within 24 hours either by being repaired by a safety officer or (in some cases) by sagging back down into their original position due to gravity. By replacing structurally sound 8x4 sheets of MDF (which made up the architecture of the studios in my former college) with boards which I had prepared earlier. I had undermined the integrity of these latter by soaking them for days in water and then bending them into shapes when wet. When these boards dried, they retained the shapes that I imposed on them. To respond to the materiality of my surroundings. To disrupt the quotidian experience of accessing the studio. To remind passers by of the presence of gravity and of the impermanent, changeable nature of the maze of ‘walls’ around them. To give the illusion either of some recent act of vandalism (the wrenching down of a studio wall) or of the existence of a will in the material; a will to disobey its prescribed function.

‘The World Without Us’.

A site-specific sculptural work made as a response to a brief (agreed upon by the exhibiting artists in the show). -- Brief - To make a work that engages with the underground. -- The work took the form of a dry stone wall roughly splitting the exhibition space in half. Before the opening, I replaced key structural stones with ice blocks frozen out of mud and pigment so that throughout the opening night, the wall slowly collapsed. All around me, artists were digging deep into and under the gallery floor. Some having to build timber mineshaft structures in order to dig deeper. Naturally they were also raising large mounds of earth and rubble to the surface around them. I went through these mounds looking for suitable rocks in order to build my wall. To create a work which both conceptually / materially fit the concept / setting of the exhibition. To create a work which has a lifespan (an object which performs and then expires leaving some sort of readable trace). In order to see in fast forward the deterioration of an architectural structure (the dry stone wall) which is percieved as durable and symbolic of lasting values and traditions.

‘In Out In Out’.'

A collaborative exhibition which involved the redesigning of a simple prefab into a complex one way system of tunnels, connecting miniature gallery spaces. By deciding where the audience should be allowed to stand up and to what degree they should be able to ascertain the layout of the temporary maze that they were traversing. By allowing access only to those willing to crawl. Recognising the audience as a completing force in the work and seeking to investigate the ways in which the audience can be manipulated, controlled, shepherded. An investigation into involved curatorial strategies which attempt to make the viewing of art more rigid in order to enfranchise the artist / curator regarding the way in which their work is to be viewed. In order to redefine the experience of moving through a gallery space. To contravene the social norms of an exhibition opening by having artists, critics, lecturers, punters crawling face to buttock in a one way system which is constantly moving, preventing lingering and chit chat.