Residence Residence
poster in washed out blue/grey tones
on a background of two semi transparent paintings overlaid — one of a smiling woman painting a man, and one of a little girl slumped in an armchair — text in a square-ish sans serif font distributed symmetrically reads:
jae lawson laura moorhouse anna rooney
then in larger text, the title: residence residence
in smaller text again:
eisure as art as work as leisure as art as work as leisure as art as wo
residence residence is an experimental project looking at entanglements of art, work and leisure, and investigating how blurring the differences between these may offer forms of resistance to the predatory market capitalism of the bourgeois art world.
Or, in less wanky language: What is “being an artist”? What does it mean to pay artists a wage to just “be artists?” What is an art gallery? Are artists workers? What does being a working artist look like? What is the value of art work? How do visitors to nonprofit galleries fit into the art market? How does the current setup of the art world help and hinder art? Who gets to be an artist when art is a “labour of love”?
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Three Dundee-based artists will be paid a wage at union rates to work in one gallery for 37 hours over a three-week period, with no contracted requirement to reach set outcomes for exhibition. The artists will also undertake admin tasks, and will be on display to visitors as they do so. The selected artists are Jae Lawson, Laura Moorhouse and Anna Rooney.
Simultaneously, Generator’s other gallery will house a living room for the city: a comfortable space where visitors are welcomed to linger without the expectation of paying money in a café to justify their existence in a cultural space. Conversely, free food and drink will be available, along with an array of resources about art and work.
Visitors will also be free to interact with provided art materials and to contribute to the project through submitting these or admin work. Works by visitors will be hung as part of the exhibition.
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residence residence will be open to visitors from Tuesday September 17th to Friday October 4th from 12pm-8pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Each day, an artist will be working in the space. The project will end with a closing party on Saturday, October 5th from 6pm-9pm, for which the work the artists have produced will be hung, and a final viewing on Sunday, October 6th from 12pm-8pm.