Looking at peter liversidge's proposals definitely helped me to see the ways in which a proposal can be presented and idealised... I might actually try writing it down simply (instructional?) as well, because I realise that sometimes putting ideas into words sort of makes the idea concrete or come into fruition. I think I will try that when the time comes. I really like the way he uses text in this way, as it can be ambiguous or clear as day depending on how you look at it. reminds me of zoë's exercise she had us do for her proposal, when she read out the descriptions of items in the collection and we had to draw it out, and we all had very different images in our heads.
'Over the course of the last 12 years, using an Olivetti typewriter, Liversidge has created proposals for exhibitions that range from the simple to the impossible. He experiments with what he describes as the "notion of creativity", often realised as objects, performances, or happenings over the course of an exhibition. Liversidge says of his proposals that: "...it's important that some of the proposals are actually realized, but no more so that the others that remain only as text on a piece of A4 paper. In a sense they are all possible and the bookwork that collates the proposals allows the reader to curate their own show, and because of its size and scale the bookwork allows an individual to interact with each of the proposals on their own terms, one to one."
He draws inspiration not just from artists such as On Kawara, Fischli and Weiss, but also from artists such as Joseph Cornell and the Reverend Howard Finster, as well as inveterate tinkerers like his own grandfathers. Liversidge is driven by the generative notion of creativity and the idea that art is most successful when it exists slightly outside of formalist notions of fine art. The physical objects Liversidge produces often include banal, everyday materials that are repurposed or co-opted for his use. His work, as seen in a lot of his proposals, requires the presence of the viewer and their interpretation of the proposals to complete the aesthetic experience.'
FROM HOME - HOW FAR THE MOON HAS, AND IS, MOVING AWAY FROM THE EARTH SINCE THE MOON LANDING, JULY 20TH 1969, 2018
Framed proposal, 1000 year installation plan 1969-2969, 38 meter long measuring tape, monofilament.
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN WHILST WALKING (URSUS RICTUS), 2009
useful videos..
-a short introduction of his work
(sending objects with address and stamps to gallery, flag that says hello etc) + proposals to try
-always tries to have the artwork evolve during the show, there is a live element (which could be them thinking about the proposal)
-'the proposal being the quintessential starting point, and you either do it or you don't do it, that materiality, whether it's the physical thing or just the idea, became really key to the work, it became the imagined space rather than the actual, and in that way it can be anything. my version of the work is just my version of the work.
(john green was in the video too, he said he wants to do the last proposal because of his interest in the experienced/actual world , matter/sensation)
-john then says liversidge was influenced by this work, set of 100 cards designed in 1974. different strategies with dealing with creative dilemmas.
-but peter is offering specific instructions, not oblique strategies. those doing the assignments have a lot of agency in how you execute these proposals. respond in different ways.
-she talks about this book 'Do It'; an exhibition conceived by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist beginning the mid-'90's , invited artists from all over the world to submit instructions for artworks that can be made/remade in different sites
examples from 'Do It'
peter liversidge goes on to read out his proposal for state modern (500 choir singers)
-one of the key things to these proposals, they're descriptions, represents the Beginning of something (although there are 25 choirs by the end of it), the sense of the beginning of the proposal, we were saying at the start, is just the beginning, always has the sense of being in a moment. not necessarily the moment but a moment... (continue below)
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-uses the typewriter, first thing he does is type the address of the one he is sending it to, then the proposal, with all the mistakes in spelling and grammar and punctuation because he can't go back on the typewriter.
-'the work that exists as physical objects, beyond the proposals is, in my mind, no more important than work that just stays as text because there comes a point where the work then exists in the mind of whoever's reading it so it's not important, hope it's very open work'
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Christo and Jeanne-Claude Wrap Up the Reichstag | Lost Art