Pen Tests
A4 paper, scribble from 460 pens

Dear Daniel, I’m writing to invite you to participate in an exhibition I would like to hold illegitimately within an Officeworks store. Officeworks is a chain of office supplies stores across Australia, and I would like to hold the exhibition in the Fremantle store, in Western Australia. The exhibition would be held without the permission or knowledge of Officeworks –the artworks would be installed covertly and potentially left in place. The exhibition would not be advertised or promoted to the public, but would be documented and then disseminated digitally as a PDF of images and text. The premise of the show is based on my own observations of potential parallels between Officeworks and contemporary art practice.(1) The aesthetics of Officeworks are reflective of the clichéd contemporary white cube gallery –polished floors, white walls, fluorescent lighting. Officeworks Fremantle is a particularly dilapidated and badly run outlet, and so there are large empty spaces reminiscent of those reserved for the presentation of artworks. It's also a bit dirty, with miscellaneous smudges and stains like those seen in an ARI. (2) The day to day work of the contemporary artist could be perceived to be akin to the office-worker. Much time is spent administratively, working in a small room at a desk, emailing, facebooking, procrastinating and running down the clock. Efficiency, productivity and value of this mode of work is questionable. A generally provocative interrogation of contemporary notions of work and the efficacy of work is the imagined or intended sub-text of the exhibition and would be fleshed out in more detail through an essay that may refer to the works shown. I am unable to offer an Artist Fee for your participation in the show, but am able to install your work and document your work, and potentially create the work using your instruction if appropriate. Given the nature of the show I imagine that the exhibited works would be inexpensive (as they may not be retrieved after installation) and small in scale as they will have to be covertly carried through the store.