48 Hour Run
click here for the submission and instructions PDF
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2006 October - CALL TO ARTISTS
For some time now I have had an interest in the space of the artist’s studio, particularly in questioning its use-function and the operations that define this space. In other words, ‘what is practice?’
Artists are afforded certain luxuries in this world. The studio, while it is a cost to many of us early in our careers, is a space not commonly afforded by most people. One blank wall holds so much potential.
What do artists do with their spaces? For most, the studio is simply a site used toward the creations of their trade: a space in which things are made to define their practice; those things are sold to accumulate money to perpetuate the process. Eventually the studio gets bigger, it needs more space.
Of course the context of the studio and the things we might find therein are constantly changing, shifting, expanding: Jackson Pollock once painted in a barn, now we have hi-speed WiFi networks and laptops.
These days, as the studio space gets larger, so the wireless speeds must get faster. More space, more speed: these are the concerns of contemporary art practice.
But what of a finite sense of space? How does one work with what they have? And what of a finite - that is set or limited - duration of time? Within these parameters what is an artist to ‘create’?
My studio. 48 hours. Let’s make some work.
For ‘48 Hour Run’ I propose to screen exactly 48 hours of video artworks. The videos will be compiled via submissions to an open call for this project. The final ‘run’ will be screened inside my studio and occasional temporary exhibition space Normal Space @ Flux Factory. The screening will occur as soon as 48 hours of video is accepted and compiled.
Technical data
Aspect ratios and signal types (NTSC, PAL, etc.) are indifferent — a computer will play all the compiled works.
I sleep and live in my studio. But for 48 hours I will not stop anybody from entering my space to enjoy the work. While I sleep or so as not to disturb others, many multiple pairs of headphones will be available for viewers to experience the audio of all works.
No piece in the collection of works will be longer than 15 minutes. While this figure is largely arbitrary, it allows for easy calculations: a minimum of at least 192 video works will be screened (48 hours / 15 minutes = 192 art); it also means an extreme diversity and selection of works will be available for screening, instead of the usual short selection of ‘looped’ works on view. Again, 192 is the minimum; there is time for potentially many hundreds of works!
Conceptual data
‘48 Hour Run’ as an artwork is mobile; but it makes its debut in Normal Space.
The ‘run’ yearns to represent a diversity of works, artists, cultures, local & regional concerns, languages, etc.
‘48 Hour Run’ is a performance, it is intended to push people to their limits. For the duration of the screening my studio door will be unlocked and open at all times. Whether 2am or 2pm, for 48 hours viewers will be allowed access to the screening. However it is highly unlikely that anybody will survive the entire 48 hour duration: 48 hours is a mentally conceivable duration of time but is just beyond the limits of our sustainability. It is a ridiculous notion even: 24 hours could likely be achieved, but 48, at double the duration, becomes outlandish.
It is a ‘run’ because it is like a marathon. No sprinter-runner could possibly run for 48 hours straight. However some do run for 48 hours over, say, two weeks, while preparing for a major test of their physical ability. It is about a sense of endurance.
Nick Normal, 2006 September
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