Artist Marcus Coates has teamed up with Grizedale Arts – fresh from its recent display at Frieze Art Fair – for a Jerwood Encounters exhibition that opens tomorrow.
‘Now I Gotta Reason’ attempts to tap into what the organisers have identified as a significant shift in artists’ practice in recent years. It reflects an approach that emphasises the use value of art, and promotes artists in practical and effective roles whose primary concern is not aesthetic sensibility or the production of artefacts for the art market.
Bringing together artists Ruth Beale and Amy Feneck, Michael Davis, Fernando García-Dory, Steve Ounanian and graphic design studio An Endless Supply, the participants will jointly build a series of wooden architectural structures to house various activities during the exhibition, including critique sessions, a participatory events programme and active installations. The aim is to ‘explore the activity and economy of exhibition making, and systems of use value and exchange’.
As a performance artist, Coates is well versed in creating deliriously odd, imaginative worlds that use ritual to square up to unresolved issues in society. His interest lies in how art can explore and possible answer valuable questions.
Coates himself will be providing Life Tutorials every Monday afternoon during the exhibition, in which visitors can receive advice on their existential dilemmas. The exhibition will also feature an Honest Shop where visitors can buy and sell useful handmade items; a library built up from contributions by the participants and the public; an opportunity to join a communal lunch every weekday; and a print shop producing online and printed poster material.
‘Now I Gotta Reason’ runs from 7 November – 9 December 2012 at Jerwood Visual Arts. www.jerwoodvisualarts.org
