Collaborative art both generates and identifies communities through the coming together of ideas, materials and networks. There are explicit collaborations such as artist collectives like the Guerrilla Girls, or the teaming up of artists and designers with commercial entities, such as Reg Mombassa and Mambo clothing, but I wanted to explore and expose the idea of silent and invisible collaboration, particularly as a form of community.
I decided to create a large-scale artwork label as my poster to explore the full extent of collaboration that is not usually identified, particularly when it is viewed as the cohesion of multiple contributors. I dissected the production of a poster into individual names in an attempt to expose the community that can be found in the extended collaboration of an artwork. For example, I drafted most of the text on my laptop, so I divided the relevant technologies into individual programs, companies, CEOs, founders and places of purchase, identifying each specific, seemingly unimportant contribution. I then categorised these names by relevance and the directness of their contribution on my work, which is symbolised by the varying size of the font - the smaller the font, the more indirect their influence.
As I continued to analyse and identify the numerous factors and entities impacting the production of my poster, this question arose: where does it end? The process of deconstructing and expanding the material collaboration of the poster became endless and revealed the potential to extend further than significant art histories to include notable social influences, such as the role of the poster in advertising, and even further to the creation of the universe (the Big Bang). I decided to draw the line at the history of my materials and the people responsible for their invention, using the symbol of the ellipsis to signify the potential continuation and âdomino effectâ of deconstructed collaboration.
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