The ephemeral

I would like to produce an exhibition that interprets the theme of the ephemeral. How a piece of art or the exhibition itself can change over time. I would like to develop this so the audience takes apart and has some responsibility in how successful the exhibition is instead of just a passive spectator role. Drawing the viewer in to the experience instead being detached from the artists thought process / the other viewers in the exhibition space. I would like to involve a group of artist who is willing to have their work changed by artists and non-artists alike whether this is just instillation based artist or more of a mixed discipline approach and the content of the work itself isn’t as important as the fact that it can be a fluid moving situation. The participation would work by the viewer having to add or take away something from the pieces of art shown each day or another idea is to have the artists in the exhibition space between limited times each day turning the gallery space into more of a studio atmosphere and allowing people to help create the pieces bit by bit each day which would be shown on the end night of the show. Each day will be documented and then placed onto a blog , which will also be posted onto facebook showing the progress and each day have flyers inviting people to come along. The key idea I want to explore is participation and how without the visitors the pieces would either not exist or exist but the exhibition would not of being successful due to the lack of outsider participation in removing items. The collaborative process of the exhibition making being more important than the outcome. I want to lose the traditional sense of the look but not touch and I believe this would also help me develop my articulating skills and not being so insular in producing work. This would also go towards the theme of the myth and the role the artist take when producing work . Artists work that have influenced these ideas are Felix Gonzalez-torres’s candy spills in which the vistors took one sweet until they had all gone in the end. Jeff Zimmermans work is inspiring on the ephemeral sense that after the exhibits time is up the work is white washed with minimal documentation. Jessica wittes bird seed work also showed the ephemeral and also the sense of destruction by the audience. “The work was essentially destroyed (at least 80%) by the end of the two-hour opening reception.  Explaining the “empty” gallery over the month and a half-run of the show proved a challenge to those who did not see the installation in its pristine form.” Rirkrit tiravanija,