Do Your Work
2008
The Foundry, London
Duration: 10 nights
In February 2008 the Foundry (may it rest in peace) allowed me to carry out a performance over ten nights called Do Your Work. Once upon a time the Foundry was a bank, and there’s a thick-walled vault in the basement that contains two echoey good-sized rooms that used to house the money and safe deposit boxes. This is where the performance took place.
This performance was about production, process, and the relationship between time, art and money. (For more in-depth background, you can download the leaflet that accompanied the performance by clicking here and here.) Over ten nights, from 5-11pm, I sat in one of the rooms and pushed myself to produce as much work as possible. I brought with me some materials – rolls of paper, some ink, brushes, magazines, and random other bits including, but not limited to, twenty four low-resolution pornographic photographs I found in an underpass. The challenge eventually became being coming up with subject matter to work with; this I took from my diaries, the music I was listening to, conversations I had, people I met. I ended up with 42 finished works that were all on sale from 8-11pm on February 16, 2008 for £20 each. Price negotiation was not tolerated. I sold a good number of them. (I told you to get them while they were cheap.)
Only one piece was a site-specific one that was not intended to last longer than the show.
I don’t do this painting and two-dimensional thing, so I wasn’t sure what was going to come out of it. It ended up being very text-heavy, which is all right with me. Click on the pictures below to view each work. They appear in no particular order.
