research

Chance: publications

admin — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:26:43 +0100

Some of our publications at Artwords bookshop at the Whitechapel Gallery London.

Chance: projects

admin — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 17:33:35 +0100

A detail from Generosity at the Kunsthaus Graz Austria 22 Sep 2006 - 28 Oct 2006

value cover

admin — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:48:57 +0100

Value of Things
London 2000

Academy and Museum

admin — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:08:08 +0100

Ecole supérieure d'art visuel and the Musée d'art et d'histoire
Geneva 1998

The Value of Things

admin — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 15:52:00 +0100

Sub-Title

Date of Publication

October 2000

Location

Publisher

an August/Birkhauser publication: London and Basel

Designer

Stephen Coates

Body

Part beautiful artists book, part critical text The Value of Things is the result of over five years research, facilitated by unprecedented access to the British Museum and Selfridges Department Store.

To live in a modern city, is to live in an environment described by an astonishing array of things. Growing mountain of clothes, tools, art, gifts, information, souvenirs, electronic technology and rubbish are piling up around us. Objects are inserted into, and spill out of every shelf, cupboard, display case, shop, home, gallery, museum, magazine, computer monitor and landfill site. Surrounded by a complex mesh of competing 'product narratives' that dispute ownership, contest interpretation, and disagree on value, these vast accumulations of objects are the means by which we make ourselves and our world knowable.

Events in the previous century which led to this daunting state of accumulation, unfolded as the end-game of a revolution which had begun in the nineteenth century. The giant engines of European industralisation that initiated the material avalanche of the modern age necessitated the evolution of massive institutions to both structure and display the energy of production through things.

The Value of Things sets out to explore the narratives of two institutions which perfectly represent the awesome technologies for sourcing, transportation, warehousing, accounting, stocking, display and redistribution of material things. The greatest inventions of modernity, these institutions are the most privileged sites within the social organisation of all objects, images, signs and services: the department store and the public museum.

Although clearly organised around different economic drives, what the department store shares with the museum is the encyclopaedic desire to render the whole world knowable, classified and displayed for the visitor to consume. If the museum inherited its collection and core practices from the previous aristocracy, its driven by a set of values and narratives to protect an image of singularity through souvenirs of the past. In simple contrast, the store holds the promise of a semiotic democracy, played out live amongst the profusion of the present.

But The Value of Things is not merely a task of mourning - it tracks the narrative of the museum and the store through into the newly-diffused territories of the digital age. As we enter the first decade of the new millennium, our traditional play with value has exceeded its previous limits. A principle of value based on the expression of accumulated excess, has far less relevance in electronically connected economies.

While the department store and museum act as a model to structure and narrate previous attitudes towards things, they are also caught in a process of radical transformation - they may even be accelerating towards a strange convergence.

As the store is superseded by out-of-town shopping cities, or its convenience challenged by the point-and-click of e-commerce, the ruthless forces of commerce are subsumed under an image of public service and spectacle. The store becomes a tourist destination dispersed amongst other cultural sites. In turn, as an effect of changes in both public provision and the constitution of its visiting audience, the museum has been forced to aggressively market and license its own collection. Those stored old things, are harnessed as potential new revenue streams via tiers of licensed commercial access. The museum is evolving as a 'brand', competing to control the flow of value through things, as its objects merge with a wider culture of exhibition, our most unique artifacts become seamlessely integrated into the retail present.

224 pages 17 x 23.5cm full colour

to read a review
College Art Association Reviews

to buy from Birkhauser or Amazon

Description

ISBN/ASIN

3 7643 6316 9

ArtWords Link

Reprise

admin — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 15:10:23 +0100

Sub-Title

part of Independence, commissioned by curator Chris Hammonds

End Date

3 Aug 2003

Start Date

3 Jun 2003

Location

South London Gallery: London

Body

Reprise was part of Independence, a celebratory exhibition at the South London Gallery, marking the devolution of the Gallery from Local Authority management.

Reprise was presented by the director Margot Heller at the opening party on the 1st June 2003.

On our behalf, Margot read a speech that we found through our research in the Gallery archives. The speech was first delivered in 1893 by the founder [the Gallery began in 1868] and director William Rossiter to the Gallery Council. Rossiter was fighting to retain the independence of the Gallery by keeping it out of Local Authority control, he was fearful of swapping one form of indebtedness, inherent in financial support - from private donation to public subsidy- for another .

Rossiter lost the battle to keep the Gallery independent.

108 years later, and although the direction of the Gallery's movement is reversed - from public subsidy to a 'mixed' economy - the forms of indebtedness remain the same; the struggle for independence is being uncannily replayed, in reverse.

Reprise
A souvenir pamphlet, with annotated text of the speech delivered by both directors
ISBN 1 898 461 244
Price 20p

Published by the South London Gallery and millimeter.org

Available from the gallery

Modern Chairs

admin — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 15:01:14 +0100

Sub-Title

A commission as part of the Centenary Exhibition

End Date

20 May 2001

Start Date

21 Mar 2001

Location

Whitechapel Art Gallery

Body

For the Centenary celebrations of the Whitechapel Gallery, we revisited the seminal furniture exhibition from 1970, entitled Modern Chairs 1918-1970. The exhibition was arranged by the Circulation Department at the Victoria and Albert museum under the curatorship of Carol Hogben.

The original exhibition and its installation was the first attempt in Britain of a wide ranging 'survey' of modern chairs, and in many ways prefigured the formation of the V & A's 'Boilerhouse' and London's Design Museum. Modern and 'classic' furniture was presented with all the display rhetoric of contemporary art. Chairs were elevated/reduced to objects of aesthetic or iconic status, their utility suspended.

While browsing the catalogue of the exhibition, we were suprised by how many of the selected chairs -several from the 1930's- are still in current production. We proposed to exhibit as many of the 'classic' café or dining chairs from the 1970 exhibition as it was possible to source.

But, in an attempt to reverse the polarity of the delicate tension engendered by the original exhibition, our chairs were to be exhibited in the Cafe space at the Whitechapel. Visitors would be able to 'use' the 'design classics' and consciously participate in the interface between art and life.

Buy the catalogue The Whitechapel Art Gallery Centenary Review

read Adrian Searle's review for the Guardian and visit Whitechapel

Chanceprojects

admin — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 23:50:25 +0200

Francis Bacon sold and in transit, Sotheby's New York 2006

Welcome to the Chanceprojects Wiki

admin — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:48:48 +0200

We are working on the texts published in this wiki

Some, written by us are already published in print form elsewhere

Some, written by others are texts commissioned, or found and reprinted as relevant to certain projects and printed elsewhere

Other miscellaneous things - drawings, models, letters and lectures are more in flux. Feel free to comment

Reprise

admin — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:34:59 +0100

This is the full text of the lecture, without annotations

REPRISE

A project by Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska
on the occasion of Independence an exhibition at the South London Gallery
1st June – 3rd August 2003

Souvenir Pamphlet

Price 20p
A SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF THE SOUTH LONDON ART GALLERY, LIBRARY AND LECTURE HALL
-From its Foundation in 1868-

Addressed to the council of the South London Fine Art Gallery January 4th 1893

The Institution now being a quarter of a century old, and Mr Westlake and myself being the only members familiar with this history as a whole, it seemed worthwhile to recount a summary of its history, especially as many people still think it is supported by ratepayers through the County Council.

research

Chance: publications

Chance: projects

value cover

Academy and Museum

The Value of Things

Sub-Title

Date of Publication

Location

Publisher

Designer

Body

Description

ISBN/ASIN

ArtWords Link

Related Films

Related Projects

Related Publications

Reprise

Sub-Title

End Date

Start Date

Location

Body

Related Films

Related Projects

Related Publications

Modern Chairs

Sub-Title

End Date

Start Date

Location

Body

Related Films

Related Projects

Related Publications

Chanceprojects

Welcome to the Chanceprojects Wiki

We are working on the texts published in this wiki

Reprise

REPRISE

Souvenir Pamphlet