The following three images concerning reels of thread mounted on a wall were taken in Liverpool at an exhibit. I have a certain liking for colourful things, so was immediately interested in all the different colours in front of me before I had any idea what this was all about yet. There was thread streaming across the room and adjacent the walls were a few tables with bundles of clothes piled up on top of each other. Additionally there was a man at the end of the connected tables sewing some of the clothes using thread from the wall. I was intrigued as to its purpose and whether it was chiefly aesthetic with some abstract idea behind it all which I would fail to grasp. I read a small plaque explaining the small exhibit. The artist, whose name I regrettably fail to remember, has been asking people to hand in clothes with need of repairing in order for him to mend them himself. The amusing bit is that his adjustments would be made apparent as the colourful thread would be sewn on the outside of a rip rather than discreetly hidden underneath. Aside from how interesting the reels looked on the wall, I thought it was a fascinating little idea behind the project, it’s simply fun, and in its own ways celebrating colours and imperfections. The space reflected this jovial project, it was open, the artist was right there as he mended the clothes and spoke to everyone with a big smile on his face. It was a warm friendly atmosphere in this small space which reflected greatly this man’s work.
This grey room filled with photographs is another engaging project a Japanese photographer produced in 1981. The photographer photographed himself every hour of everyday for a year, in the exact same spot. He used orange punching cards to record his punctuality and dedication, to which he had a witness approve their authenticity. Rows and rows of photographs surround the room, the same size, of the same man, with the similar impassive expression on his face for every photograph, he wore the same uniform and took them in the same space. So many things of this exhibit relate to a factory. The repetition, the order, the similarity, the timing, the production, the punch cards and the idea of ‘slavery’. The artist was a slave to his own project, unable to venture off far away or to do anything for too long without interruption this imprisonment of his own work took a lot of dedication and perseverance. The images do not work on their own rather they work as a collective and I find the space further enables the artist’s work to capture the correct understanding from his audience. The space was vast and empty, it was grim and grey matching his uniform and there was a great sense of monotony and order in how the images were presented on the walls. In addition to all of this, what astonished me was how he only missed 94 shots due to sleep. What I proceeded to do immediately after reading this was to take out my calculator. I decided to take on average 4 hours worth of sleep every night, which is fairly minimal and multiplied it by the number of nights in a year, which equals to 1460 hours of which he claims to have failed to wake up only 94 times. The sheer discipline behind the project and how well the space works with the piece is what really makes it as admirable and gratifying as it is.
The photographs I took (above) were aimed in recording the lighting, the grimness and the order in the room.
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