I propose...

...to film myself performing a series of impersonations of artists reciting statements about their practice or re-enacting interviews they have given. These statements will be true to their original texts except that references to the first person singular (I, my) will be switched with the second person singular (you, your).  Where reference to the ‘artist’ or the ‘viewer/audience’ is made, these terms will also be switched. 

Artists and texts I am intending to try impersonating:

• Jasper Johns – Untitled statement, 1959 
  
• Claes Oldenberg – ‘I am for an art’
  
• Duchamp – The Creative Act

The performances will be genuine attempts to impersonate the featured artists, including mimicking accents and gestures. Cues for clothing and sets will be taken from existing footage of the artists giving interviews. The performances will be addressed directly to the camera, in the style of talking heads or the framing of the interviewee on talk shows. Each impersonation will (ideally) be shot in single takes, without the need for cutaways. Where the footage of the artist is in black and white, the film of the impersonation will be represented as black and white. The final film will be edited as a sequence of separate interviews, each separated by a few seconds of blank screen. The piece itself may have a title, but that’s still to be decided.

The film will be exhibited on a small TV or monitor, placed on the seat of a standard plastic chair from one of the studios. The sound should be channeled through the speakers of the TV/monitor (ie. rather than through headphones) as the piece should address the viewer and the group show.

illustration of intended installation in gallery:

I propose...

...installing two radios in the exhibition space – one analog, one digital – around five metres apart from each other. The radios will be tuned to the same live radio station. The installation may require the radios to be separated by the work of other artists. 

The processing of the signal within the digital radio causes a short delay in the audio being relayed of between 1-2 seconds. The sound from each radio is therefore out of synch, and the viewer in the gallery will hear the audio repeated. 

I propose...

...making a short piece of film showing multiple views of a simple object which can be found in the space in which the final film will be exhibited – the light switch for example. For the exhibition, the film will be projected onto the original object.

The film will be constructed by filming the object from one viewpoint, then reshooting it from another viewpoint whilst the first film is projected onto the object. This process will be repeated five times so that multiple viewpoints of the object are overlayed on the single piece of footage. Whilst most of the viewpoints will be shot using a tripod for the camera, one may be shot handheld to provide a certain amount of variation. 

At the end of the film the projected image will go to blank, before starting again. 

The final film will be projected onto the original object in the normal light of the exhibition. 

I propose...

...I propose to construct a large object – such as a box from wood and pre-fabricated panels – which occupies the entire volume of space allocated to in the next group show in which I'm involved. 

Then, from a fixed viewpoint, I will film this object in situ – establishing the location within the framing of the image. I will record the ambient sound of the space during filming. I will then remove the object.

For the show itself, I will display the film on a small monitor at the far end of my allocated space, possibly placing the monitor on the floor against the back wall – so that to view it one has to enter the once occupied space.

I propose...

...for the next group show I'm involved in, to paint the floor of the entire space, wall to wall, with the pattern of coloured dots from the popular family game Twister. The other works in the show would be installed as per the artists’ intentions on top of this painted floor. 

I propose...

...to drill shallow indentations on the white wall of an exhibition space, in order to create a text, in the form of a simple font constructed out of circles (see bottom of post for font example).

The indentations will reveal the layers of paint used in preparing previous exhibitions. The text will read:

What would Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham do?

What would Robert Milkwood Thomas do?

What would Robert Allen Zimmerman do?

What would Tedham Porterhouse do?

What would Blind Boy Grunt do?

What would Elmer Johnson do?

What would Sergei Petrov do?

What would Elston Gunnn do?

What would Bob Dylan do?

What would Jack Frost do?

What would Jack Fate do?

(example of font)

I propose...

...to paint portraits of the characters of a novel that has not been visualised before (either in film, on stage, in illustration). The idea is to realise a specific representation of something which otherwise only exists as a generalised image in the imagination of the reader, to assert some authority over the image or to stake a claim.

The portraits would be of every main and secondary character featured in a particular novel and be presented together.