About

The documentation of ephemeral artwork, works made to be transient, changeable and un-fixed, is often problematic for the intent and premise of creation as it aligns itself with a particular moment, place and viewpoint in time. Lens-based methods are mostly relied upon to communicate actuality and happening and to fix the un-fixed memory of the artwork, and this is part of that problem. Effectively, this type of documentary device works in opposition to the concept of the artwork, cementing into a fragmentary history when all it wants is to be fleeting in its temporality. The lens-made recording tends to generalise vision and, by extension, it does not fully communicate the experience of ‘being there’ and present. This is problematic for artwork whose very premise is to be transient and time-based, and for which direct experience is a priority.

‘Documents, Alternatives (#3)’ is an exhibition that includes time-based works that rely on performative process and created experience, which aims to resolve this issue by making the document and artwork reflexive. In doing this it acknowledges their need for change so that they remain continuous and in process through staging a practical and thought provoking visual discussion. The symposium accompanies this exhibition at BSAD, and acts in response to process with artistic practice and the experience of the artwork. It situates a series of opportunities for the experience of process through a structure of colloquialism adjacent to the exhibition, to open the nature of artistic process to critical debate. To enable a dialogue about process (as that exhibited and that discussed) informed by both academic and creative domains, symposium speakers are the artists with work in the accompanying exhibition.

The opening of the exhibition follows the symposium, to which delegates are warmly invited.

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