Cultivating collaboration

'A Gift for Somerset' - wall of gifts

Cultivate 2: A Gift For Somerset raised interesting issues about collaborative working practices and how to relate them to institutions and audiences. Essentially a process of gift receipt, response and exchange between artists, it was centred on the gallery space at Taunton Brewhouse, culminating in a public exhibition 28th April - 7 June 2012.

The project was led by Simon Lee Dicker (of OSR Projects) and Karen Macdonald (an independent curator) with support from Tim Martin (Taunton Brewhouse). I was involved for two days, working as part of a group of associate artists in the gallery to respond to gifts sent in by other artists from around the world.

This collection of gifts (some physical, some conceptual, some virtual) was the starting point for a group collaboration. With just four days to produce and install a public exhibition speed, spontaneity, improvisation and collaboration were key. Flexibility and openness were vital too as the artists involved in production were a constantly shifting group.

'A Gift for Somerset' - responses to gift from Open Place

'A Gift for Somerset' - response to In the fluid tense from Jethro Brice

I focused with several others on a set of instructions, In the fluid tense, gifted by Jethro Brice. He asked us to consider, from the standpoint of the future, objects that were "once ubiquitous and mundane...now obscure" and to design prototype technology for the post-industrial world. These were then placed in a 'future museum'.

Although the content of this glass cabinet evolved constantly, at the time of the opening it contained mysterious miscellaneous metal parts (from a deconstructed and remodelled icing set found in a local charity shop), along with a model of a windmill made from old drinks cans, and drawings and a prototype of a sunlight-powered 'bulb' used by poor families in the Philippines to illuminate their homes. It was finished off with two plastic buckets (one mounted with a wheel) and a pair of found miniature metal objects whose form defied any useful function (a bucket with no bottom and a watering can with no spout).

Other parts of the icing set found their way into a response to a gift from Open Place in Ukraine. Part of this Kiev-based group's submission involved a 'Louis Vuitton'  plastic carrier. Inserts from the icing set echoed symbols on the bag and were therefore repurposed as 'future logos', divorced from brand connotations. One was projected on the wall and others hung to make shifting shadows.

The need for a public outcome was a useful point of focus, but also a source of anxiety. Putting incomplete or unresolved work on public display can make artists feel very vulnerable. This was solved by taking collective responsibility for the responsive works, which gave individuals scope to be more adventurous. Collectively, however, we faced an even greater challenge: inviting a general audience into the gallery to view what was, in some ways, a project in progress.

Gallery layout was used to give clues to the gifts' connections: received gifts were arranged in one corner around a makeshift map of locations, and responses emanated from it across the space. Thorough annotation ensured the origin and meaning of each gift and its responses could be understood. And in one work, the audience was encouraged to continue the process of gift exchange by swapping small personal items for hand-made badges. Nonetheless, for an outsider, the exhibition may have appeared as a rather random, if  rich, selection of objects and ideas. 

I still have a lot of questions about the best way to invite the public into such a process, but I take away from the project a renewed sense of optimism about the possibilities for artist collaboration. The loose, transitional production group (built around three or four core practitioners) created an informal yet purposeful atmosphere. Not reaching a wholly clear resolution means there's impetus to come back together (in some form) and move things on.

For me, the project embodies the gift economy that sustains much grassroots artistic activity - and may in the future sustain wider communites too. 

Cultivate 2: A Gift For Somerset was led by Simon Lee Dicker and Karen Macdonald . Associate artists that I worked with during my two days at Taunton Brewhouse included Tim Martin, Simon Ledson, Megan Calver, Jon England, Felicity Shillingford, Georgina Conroy,  Anna Newland Iacono, Gordon Field, Chantelle Henocq and Tasha Elena Stevens-Vallecillo.

More information at: http://osrprojects.wordpress.com/