An assistant is a person (or by extension a device) that helps another person accomplish their goals

Bearspace in association with Peer Sessions, presents an exhibition project entitled The Assistant. From 14th-29th May and 4th-19th June exhibitions will pair up an emerging artist, who will create the artwork, with an established artist who will instruct them. The established artist will send the emerging artist, or assistant, a list of rules one month prior to the exhibition opening, rules which will detail how the established artist wishes the work to be created and/or installed. This blog contains updates on their progress whilst a parallel page collects discussions around the idea of being an assistant and stories shared by other 'assistants' across the arts.

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Gordon's latest update to Blue



Update from Gordon and Blue's Dialogue

Gordon>Blue:

"One of the first things that I suggested during our 3 hour meeting was to show unfinished work or a kind of installation of a studio in progress. The branches of ideas that come from that involved ideas to do with theatre, drama, perhaps an installation driven by narrative. But it did not seem to be an idea you was interested in so we moved on. We also spent time discussing your star-shaped tin cans and blue material as something that you wanted to explore for it’s decorative and pleasurable qualitites but that in it’s current state of ideas was too undeveloped. However it triggered a discussion that involved use of space more consciously. For example; the blue material being a farily obvious metaphor for the ocean pushed slightly ‘ruffled’ against the wall. A minimal gesture perhaps akin to Felix Gonzales Torres – beautiful, poetically succinct and even politically timely with the oil spill. If you remember I also suggested ‘attacking’ the space......spearing it with the diving spears that you had in your studio and to play on the name of the gallery - Literally ‘skewering’ Bearspace – a kind of violent minimalism. I was searching for ways to discuss heightening existing strains and themes in your work while figuring out if it really was a direction that you wanted to extend into.


The most important thing for me was to find out if any ‘rule’ that I set out was really something you wanted to do. From the outset I had no interest in ‘assisting’ someone do something that they did not believe in or wanted to really pursue.

I look forward to seeing the results and hearing more about the ideas over the course of your installation.

...

The creative process in the context of this project is precisely all of this discussion".

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