On Trust

12th – 27th May 2007

Private view: 11th May, 6.00 – 9.00pm
Press preview: 11th May, 1.30 – 3.30pm
Open floor discussion with Richard Wentworth: 18th May, 7.00 – 9.00pm
Gallery hours: Fri, Sat, Sun, 11.00am – 6.00pm or by appointment

ON TRUST is a project curated by Claire Nichols in collaboration with Campbell Works directors, Neil Taylor and Harriet Murray.

Five international artists were commissioned by Nichols, Taylor and Murray to define an idea for a piece of work to exist within the gallery space, on the premise that authorship of these ideas to be handed over to the commissioners who then create the work.

The commissioned artists:
Robert Attanasio, Miriam Craik-Horan, Filipe Cravo, Levin Haegele and Laura Wilson.

Of the five ideas, some were very specific and others more open. The commissioners formed interpretations and responses to these ideas and examined the politics of their newly gained authorship in the creation of the work.

ON TRUST blurs traditional boundaries between gallery, curator and artist.

Modernist relics of ‘authorship’ and ‘the idea’ are reassessed within the context of the contemporary gallery space. The loss of artistic control inherent in this project serves to echo the way in which art is handed over to its audience when it is exhibited and how its perceived ‘success’ is dictated by public and critical opinion.

‘The artist has done their job by bringing an idea/image/object into existence…We must let go of the idea of control…How the work is used or abused will not affect its ability to, in one form or another, radiate and survive…’
– Robert Attanasio

An open floor discussion with Richard Wentworth
on Friday 18th May, 7.00 – 9.00pm

LISTEN TO THE OPEN DISCUSSION SOUNDTRACK

READ ARTICLES ON ARTS HUB: PART 1 – PART 2

An accompanying publication is available with contributions from Michael Archer, Brian Catling, Henry Lydiate and Sophie Leris.