For those who missed it— this piece has been a sculpture, a modular, kinetic, statement piece, an act of pure expression. an interaction with the infinite, it has been ingested, fired, glazed, reformed. then: ground to dust, a process piece, a stage, a video. Expanding still, it filled this room, a song for every side; it’s history, still narrative, both read aloud and seen to itself and by itself, and sewn up at its seams now, here, in the unknown, it asks us once more how does this end? And what do we do with it?
Thanks to everyone who made it out to the Turn finale and those who came out over the past year.
Here is the final piece, an urn of sorts for the ashes of Klara Glosova's archive ensemble—remains of the whole, really—and a once-lit tribute to each of the twelve artists. In the end, we had something new, something that will last.
These thirteen objects were balanced by seven unlit matches, free to take and use as desired.
Well, the label to the piece read, "please take one if you feel you can use one,” which perhaps indicated the matches but did not necessarily mean take one match. This language was left intentionally vague because the artist and I were ready to let anyone, should they feel they could use it, take the whole of the piece—the one piece, Take Turn—right off the pedestal. We left these little hints and ambiguity in our titles and prompts, so when at one point someone asked me, "are you going to keep it?" I was a little unsure how to answer.
Which is not to say we expected anyone to take it. We were simply game. The artist indicated they wanted me to have it, in fact. Perhaps that also kept me from really positing that the piece was free to take… With all of the letting-go in the past year, maybe I did want a keepsake. Maybe I could use one.
There were several suggestions from visitors last night to spread the ashes. I’m considering this, and where might be best. What’s more, there are eleven other suggested outcomes, one from each previous artist. Buried as a time capsule? Raffled off online? Floated into puget sound on a tiny boat? Ritually destroyed? (Again?) Or even seed the next incarnation of Turn?
Next up: a book, documenting and uncovering the project’s many twists. In September, I’ll head to London to meet with a curator interested in her own edition.
Cheers to an amazing year, everybody.