#46 making process
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Labour, value, and the art of making is the topic of today’s show. We begin with an installation at the Contemporary Calgary called Three Withdrawl Movements for an ATM . Artist Dominique Pétrin spent 10 days pasting mosaic-like screen prints and collage pieces on the gallery walls, floors and flat surfaces. The process is improvisational and the work itself is in part a performance. The highly labour-intensive installation is paired with a copy of an ATM machine, pasted on the wall at the last minute, a gesture of implied labour questioning beauty, commerce and the ubiquity of products.
What meaning does the creative process hold? How does labour negotiate with the terms of production? This is Work is an exhibition and online laboratory focused on the question of working conditions in a contemporary context. Sophie Rzepecky describes Fictional Collective as a collaborative of 26 alumni of the Design Academy of Eindhoven Masters in Social Design that collaborate on research, exhibitions, and published work about design. Placing a lens on the economic value of creative production, Fictional Collective partnered with the Swiss gallery Depot Basel to generate four events and online discussions in the gallery. The work is published online at This is Work and explore the nature of work, economy, and the value of collaboration.
Continuing the process thread, we move to the urban realm to hear how documenting change might reveal underpinning social values. David Schalliol is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago Department of Sociology. His book, Isolated Building Studies, unveils social and economic change with photographs featuring last remaining buildings. We speak about his social research and how the impartiality of a photograph can reveal the uncomfortable bits of change one building at a time. We also talk about his documentary film in development, an exploration into neighbourhood change and urban revitalization in Chicago. It’s called: The Area. (a trailer is linked.)
Image credits: 1 Fictional Collective This is Work. Photo courtesy of Matylda Krzykowski 2-3 Fictional Collective This is Work. 4-5 Isolated Building Studies photo courtesy of David Schalliol 6-7 Three Withdrawl Movements for an ATM by Dominique Petrin. Image courtesy of M.N. Hutchinson and Contemporary Calgary