at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, July 2011
Michael Day
George Eksts
Lesley Guy
Dale Holmes
As artists we are constantly working or thinking about our work. Even at rest we are working, thinking, researching or collecting. For the Burlington Club suite we have developed a show that explores the idea of art that is at rest or no longer functioning, or to be more precise, art that is off duty. By this we don’t mean failure, for in order to fail an element of striving is implied, we are aiming for a new form of success, one that is latent. This is sometimes expressed in a desire to drop out or refuse to conform to accepted notions of success; or in the way the work functions, through misappropriation or re-contextualisation. It might be in the way the work was made, casually, accidentally or in the artist’s own time. Off-duty considers the ways that art and artists can disrupt the imperative to keep making, keep working, and the idea of art that may – or may not be – at work.
Download full curatorial statement (pdf).
