Performance at “Next to Nothing: An Exhibition on the Price of Nothing and the Value of Everything by Black Dogs” (http://www.black-dogs.org/)

“The sun burned every day. It burned Time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him.”

–Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Why destroy? Why willingly dedicate hundreds of hours of my life to painstakingly scorching words of wisdom instead of taking heed and self-educating?

The book, The Harmsworth History of the World, is Part Two of an eight volume self-education history series from the turn of the century. It is, by all accounts, a beautiful object and not just for fevered bibliophiles and book fetishists such as myself. Its lavish British racing green and regal gold cover, its withered, delicate spine calling out for love and protection, its creamy golden pages scattered with all kinds of strange, exotic imagery… and within all this it swells at the seams with bloated, self-assured “knowledge” one can gorge on and pad out one’s brain with. I found it crumpled, sodden and forgotten in a puddle beside an honesty shelf in Hay-on-Wye “book town” where books may be rescued for a nominal 50p. On a grim, rainy day this funny little town feels far more like a gloomy “book necropolis”.

So what should become of this volume? This weighty, tangible block of knowledge? Sure it’s a gorgeous thing… But what is its use? Do I have any desire to gorge on its contents? Will I truly know the topic any more for reading this? Why should I? Is it even to be trusted? Or is it riddled with the prejudices of a greedy, ethnocentric British empire? What good will it do, this worthy pursuit?

And the time. What does it matter how I use my time? How do you suggest I use it?

So I choose not to consume but to destroy. To burn. I go about the destruction with the meticulous dedication and commitment any worthy task demands.

Life is precious.

Time is short.

If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly.

What is more perverse? The destruction of the lovely object? The reckless disposal of 200+ hours (over one month’s worth of “working days”) of my one precious life? Then what does it become? It is no longer of any use, and yet it embodies hundreds of hours of labour and a certain fragile, hopeless beauty. Does it become an art object, or is it an abomination even lower than trash?

Not creating, not even discovering, just obliterating. One single book.

Next To Nothing: An Exhibition on The Price of Nothing and the Value of Everything. 15th Sept - 1st October, 2011. The Light (Top Floor), Leeds City Centre

DIY art collective Black Dogs returns once more to the group show format with an exhibition containing contributions from over thirty individuals and collectives. Advancing Black Dogs’ critique of the institutional artworld, the contributors occupy various positions in relation to the label ‘artist’; raising questions about when something is art, who can make it and what the worth of calling it art is anyway.

The exhibition results from a series of collective meetings and conversations around notions of value. What is the radical potential of thrift and an economical approach? When and why is something cheap? What does it mean to be not-for-profit or operate in a non-capitalist fashion? How do we value our time and how does this find expression through the things we do or make? When are we working and when do we play?

The backdrop to these discussions has included state-enforced austerity measures, global financial crises and Marx reading groups appearing across the country alongside instances of rioting and looting. Whilst the exhibition avoids directly addressing or representing such issues, they undoubtedly provide context and resonance for the various works. Projects include: sculpture made from scrap, unmasked secrets of visual merchandising, advice on how to be a good shopper, a freely assembled Arcade Machine, traces of ‘everyday resistance’ at work, a homemade Mellotron, unrealised tattoos, reflections on sustaining an art practice when unpaid, and much more in the way of hand printing, diagrams, photography, objects, video and performance.

Next to Nothing takes place in an impressive empty unit in The Light shopping centre in the commercial heart of Leeds, a space and site that is as integral to the exhibition as the works displayed within it. Alongside the exhibition are a programme of events including evenings of music, performance and films held on and offsite. In addition, Black Dogs have used meetings as an opportunity to produce a collaborative fanzine that will be available for free to take away from the exhibition. Both the publication and the exhibition are not intended as end points or conclusions but rather markers of a moment in a collective interrogation of how we value our own and other’s activity and the cost of living.

Posted on May 8, 2012

History out of context

Posted on May 8, 2012