PROJECTS by MAKE OR BREAK
Image: Make or Break, TIME OUTSIDE, 2023. HIAP Open Studios / Spring 2023. Photo by Sheung Yiu.
TIME OUTSIDE
TIME OUTSIDE is a long-term research project: a shelter for art collectives, critical thinkers and institutions to radically rethink how artists contribute to social, environmental and political change. As part of Make or Break’s residency at Helsinki International Artist Programme on Suomenlinna Island, Helsinki, Finland, the public is invited into the beginnings of this research. Visitors to the studio can select an object, leave their phone in its place, and respond to a prompt with writing, drawing or diagramming.
Read more...
TIME OUTSIDE is a long-term research project: a shelter for art collectives, critical thinkers and institutions to radically rethink how artists contribute to social, environmental and political change. As part of Make or Break’s residency at Helsinki International Artist Programme on Suomenlinna Island, Helsinki, Finland, the public is invited into the beginnings of this research. Visitors to the studio can select an object, leave their phone in its place, and respond to a prompt with writing, drawing or diagramming.
Read more...
Started: 2023
Time/labour: ︎
Thanks to: Helsinki International Art Program & Creative Australia (HIAP Residency for collectives)
observation // object // speculative fiction // text // drawing // translation // non-human
Time/labour: ︎
Thanks to: Helsinki International Art Program & Creative Australia (HIAP Residency for collectives)
observation // object // speculative fiction // text // drawing // translation // non-human
︎
Image: Sigrid Macdonald and Make or Break, First Sentences, 2023, photo by Make or Break.
FIRST SENTENCES (in collaboration with Sigrid Macdonald)
First Sentences is a collaborative book and video series that asks you to get curious about Deaf culture and the importance of accessibility. It contains a selection of first sentences written and signed by people from Lismore, generated in response to a creative writing prompt that Make or Break devised for their Department of Non-Human Resources (DONHR) project.
First Sentences highlights conceptual and linguistic differences between Auslan and English as a way to encourage curiosity about languages and to share the theatre and poetry of Auslan, an image-based language with no written equivalent.
Read more...
First Sentences is a collaborative book and video series that asks you to get curious about Deaf culture and the importance of accessibility. It contains a selection of first sentences written and signed by people from Lismore, generated in response to a creative writing prompt that Make or Break devised for their Department of Non-Human Resources (DONHR) project.
First Sentences highlights conceptual and linguistic differences between Auslan and English as a way to encourage curiosity about languages and to share the theatre and poetry of Auslan, an image-based language with no written equivalent.
Read more...
Started: 2023
Time/labour: ︎︎︎
Thanks to:
Writers: Sigrid Macdonald, Make or Break, visitors to DONHR project at Lismore Regional Gallery
Translator/Glosser: Sigrid Macdonald
Designer: Ella Cutler
Illustrators: Sigrid Macdonald, Ella Cutler
Auslan translator and performer: Janelle Whalan
Video editor: Miška Mandić
Venue partner: Lismore Regional Gallery
Auslan // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // translation
Time/labour: ︎︎︎
Thanks to:
Writers: Sigrid Macdonald, Make or Break, visitors to DONHR project at Lismore Regional Gallery
Translator/Glosser: Sigrid Macdonald
Designer: Ella Cutler
Illustrators: Sigrid Macdonald, Ella Cutler
Auslan translator and performer: Janelle Whalan
Video editor: Miška Mandić
Venue partner: Lismore Regional Gallery
Auslan // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // translation
︎
Image: Make or Break, Hyperlocal Headlines, 2022. Photo by Wild Hardt.
HYPERLOCAL HEADLINES
Hyperlocal Headlines takes place as a series of artist-facilitated creative conversations and collective storytelling and writing sessions that imagine the future of news. Participants become citizen journalists for a day, learning to collaborate with AI technologies, understand media bias and language, and explore how the ways we tell stories can impact collective futures.
Participants’ narrative and poetic speculations are broadcast as website interventions and across large scale digital news tickers, to answer questions like: how does language influence our world view, or reveal our biases? Will the future of news be hyperlocal or distributed? Who writes it, how is it accessed, and who controls it?
Read more...
Hyperlocal Headlines takes place as a series of artist-facilitated creative conversations and collective storytelling and writing sessions that imagine the future of news. Participants become citizen journalists for a day, learning to collaborate with AI technologies, understand media bias and language, and explore how the ways we tell stories can impact collective futures.
Participants’ narrative and poetic speculations are broadcast as website interventions and across large scale digital news tickers, to answer questions like: how does language influence our world view, or reveal our biases? Will the future of news be hyperlocal or distributed? Who writes it, how is it accessed, and who controls it?
Read more...
Started: 2022
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎︎
Thanks to:
Writers: Maria, Lena, Flor, Liliana, Coni, Lelia, Hasib, Fi, Esther, Anna, Shalome, Amy, Jessica, Michelle, Luke, Miska, Tess, Shian, Ju, Ursula, Alex, AI text generator (GPT3)
Producers: Tess Maunder, Hasib Hourani
Tech assists: Ben Barnes, Wilson Wu
Photographers: Wild Hardt, Aaron Claringbold
Venue partners: Siteworks, Twosixty and Queen Victoria Women’s Centre
public broadcast // community // media // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // technology // non-human // A.I.
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎︎
Thanks to:
Writers: Maria, Lena, Flor, Liliana, Coni, Lelia, Hasib, Fi, Esther, Anna, Shalome, Amy, Jessica, Michelle, Luke, Miska, Tess, Shian, Ju, Ursula, Alex, AI text generator (GPT3)
Producers: Tess Maunder, Hasib Hourani
Tech assists: Ben Barnes, Wilson Wu
Photographers: Wild Hardt, Aaron Claringbold
Venue partners: Siteworks, Twosixty and Queen Victoria Women’s Centre
public broadcast // community // media // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // technology // non-human // A.I.
︎
Image: Make or Break, Institutional Waste #2, 2022. Photo by Joe Ruckli.
INSTITUTIONAL WASTE #2
Institutional Waste #2 is a commission for the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane that undertakes a deep material investigation into the fabric of the gallery’s walls, seeking to find alternative pathways for the gyprock, timber and MDF that are cyclically sacrificed when temporary infrastructure is replaced.
Visitors are invited to engage deeply with this material through participating in the recycling process; to handle gypsum it and work with it, to imagine the long geological processes that create the mineral, and to appreciate the time embedded within it.
Read more...
Institutional Waste #2 is a commission for the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane that undertakes a deep material investigation into the fabric of the gallery’s walls, seeking to find alternative pathways for the gyprock, timber and MDF that are cyclically sacrificed when temporary infrastructure is replaced.
Visitors are invited to engage deeply with this material through participating in the recycling process; to handle gypsum it and work with it, to imagine the long geological processes that create the mineral, and to appreciate the time embedded within it.
Read more...
Started: 2022
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎
Thanks to: Carolyn McKenzie-Craig for assistance with screen printing
Dr Monzur Imteaz at Swinburne for discussing his team’s research into plasterboard recycling
Sam at REGYP for material safety data and advice
The generous staff at IMA for their input and assistance
environment // waste // redistribution // reuse // activism // institutional // critique // gypsum // installation // labour
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎
Thanks to: Carolyn McKenzie-Craig for assistance with screen printing
Dr Monzur Imteaz at Swinburne for discussing his team’s research into plasterboard recycling
Sam at REGYP for material safety data and advice
The generous staff at IMA for their input and assistance
environment // waste // redistribution // reuse // activism // institutional // critique // gypsum // installation // labour
︎
Image: Make or Break, Citizen J, 2022, worksession in progress at UTS. Photo by Jacqui Manning.
CITIZEN J
Citizen J is a collaboration between art collective Make or Break and tertiary students who are interested in understanding media subjectivity and the tools being developed and used by media empires, corporations and nation states to influence our understanding of truth. This project enables students to play with a series of critical and creative tools – including media analysis, language shaping, news scraping, futuring, speculative writing and machine learning – to generate a series of future newsfeeds.
Read more...
Citizen J is a collaboration between art collective Make or Break and tertiary students who are interested in understanding media subjectivity and the tools being developed and used by media empires, corporations and nation states to influence our understanding of truth. This project enables students to play with a series of critical and creative tools – including media analysis, language shaping, news scraping, futuring, speculative writing and machine learning – to generate a series of future newsfeeds.
Read more...
Started: 2022
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: UTS students Abbie, Amy, Annie, Diego, Eleanor, Helen, Jack, James, Jay, Jessie, Joseph, Julien, Kent, Kimberley, Lucy, Rahul, Sean, Seja, Solei, Sophie, Rodger and Timi, and anonymous AIs
citizen journalism // media // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // technology // non-human // A.I.
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: UTS students Abbie, Amy, Annie, Diego, Eleanor, Helen, Jack, James, Jay, Jessie, Joseph, Julien, Kent, Kimberley, Lucy, Rahul, Sean, Seja, Solei, Sophie, Rodger and Timi, and anonymous AIs
citizen journalism // media // futures // collaboration // speculative fiction // text // technology // non-human // A.I.
︎
Image: Nicole Monks and Make or Break, wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift), 2021, video still courtesy the artists.
wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (RITUAL / GIFT) IN COLLABORATION WITH NICOLE MONKS
wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift) is a close-captioned listening and observation ritual developed by Nicole Monks and Make or Break for Runway Journal (Issue #44 TIME, edited by Joel Spring). Over a period of weeks, Nicole, Bec and Connie exchanged ideas cross-Country between Wajarri, Burramattagal and Gadigal lands on the West and East coasts of so-called Australia.
In wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift), we collectively offer a distillation of the thinking, touching, listening and looking that we did together. What made us feel slowed, connected and held by place.
Read more...
wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift) is a close-captioned listening and observation ritual developed by Nicole Monks and Make or Break for Runway Journal (Issue #44 TIME, edited by Joel Spring). Over a period of weeks, Nicole, Bec and Connie exchanged ideas cross-Country between Wajarri, Burramattagal and Gadigal lands on the West and East coasts of so-called Australia.
In wirnda mara ganjarnmanha (Ritual / Gift), we collectively offer a distillation of the thinking, touching, listening and looking that we did together. What made us feel slowed, connected and held by place.
Read more...
Started: 2022
Time/Labour: ︎︎
Thanks to:
The Wajarri language version and captioning were developed in close collaboration between Kylie Simpson, a mother, nana and Wajarri speaker and teacher, and Nicole Monks. Kylie's generosity and voice are shared with you here.
Sound editing: Josh Kirkman (Wajarri), Rebecca Gallo (English)
Video editing and close captioning: Rebecca Gallo
sound // listening // time // instruction // ritual // gift // body // environment
Time/Labour: ︎︎
Thanks to:
The Wajarri language version and captioning were developed in close collaboration between Kylie Simpson, a mother, nana and Wajarri speaker and teacher, and Nicole Monks. Kylie's generosity and voice are shared with you here.
Sound editing: Josh Kirkman (Wajarri), Rebecca Gallo (English)
Video editing and close captioning: Rebecca Gallo
sound // listening // time // instruction // ritual // gift // body // environment
︎
Image: Make or Break, Translation project (rest house), 2021.
TRANSLATION PROJECT (REST HOUSE)
Translation project (rest house) is the result of an experimental process of translation and exchange between Make or Break and a group of architects, craftspeople, fabricators and researchers. It began as a series of translated texts describing a piece of Australian vernacular architecture.
The original ‘bus stop’ on which this structure is based is a 1970s Brutalist design, reproduced across Australia’s capital city of Canberra on Ngunnawal Country. The shelter in the Thai iteration occupies a parallel position to the Khmer ‘rest houses’ that once dotted the Royal Road between Angkor Wat and Phimai. Simultaneously sites of hospitality and care, and also historical monuments to colonial power, the tensions embedded in these structures are played out again through the cultural and linguistic processes of translation (and what cannot be translated).
Read more...
Translation project (rest house) is the result of an experimental process of translation and exchange between Make or Break and a group of architects, craftspeople, fabricators and researchers. It began as a series of translated texts describing a piece of Australian vernacular architecture.
The original ‘bus stop’ on which this structure is based is a 1970s Brutalist design, reproduced across Australia’s capital city of Canberra on Ngunnawal Country. The shelter in the Thai iteration occupies a parallel position to the Khmer ‘rest houses’ that once dotted the Royal Road between Angkor Wat and Phimai. Simultaneously sites of hospitality and care, and also historical monuments to colonial power, the tensions embedded in these structures are played out again through the cultural and linguistic processes of translation (and what cannot be translated).
Read more...
Started: 2021
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Phimai Heritage Trust, Khon Kaen University and Rajamangala University of Technology Isan.
Architects: Sitta Kongsasana, Sininart Kotruchin, Benjawan Thatsanaleelaporn, Mongkol Wongkittiwimol.
Architectural Production: Narathip Sonthisumphun, Nitwipha Jaiplaeng.
Construction Team: Thanasit Chantaree, Arnuchit Booskarm.
Rattan Crafters: Somkoun Ngoophimai, Puckjiravarin Kaewdonree.
Translators: Rungsima Kullapat, Thailand Biennale
translation // power // colonial // conversation // vernacular // material // text // futures
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Phimai Heritage Trust, Khon Kaen University and Rajamangala University of Technology Isan.
Architects: Sitta Kongsasana, Sininart Kotruchin, Benjawan Thatsanaleelaporn, Mongkol Wongkittiwimol.
Architectural Production: Narathip Sonthisumphun, Nitwipha Jaiplaeng.
Construction Team: Thanasit Chantaree, Arnuchit Booskarm.
Rattan Crafters: Somkoun Ngoophimai, Puckjiravarin Kaewdonree.
Translators: Rungsima Kullapat, Thailand Biennale
translation // power // colonial // conversation // vernacular // material // text // futures
︎
Image: Make or Break, The Department of Non-Human Resources: River Procession, 2021, photo by Lucy Parakhina.
DEPARTMENT OF NON-HUMAN RESOURCES (DONHR)
DONHR subjects the gallery space to a collective rethinking, examining its relationship to consumption, waste, knowledge production, cycles of nature and community needs. This participatory project invites speculation and observation from non-human perspectives — such as a river, soil, plant or insect — in order to learn from systems and materials and establish new ways of thinking and being together. We ask (and attempt to answer) questions of sustainability and sustainment for uncertain futures.
In its first iteration, Make or Break worked on Bundjalung Country in Lismore with local communities, creating collective moments of future speculation, manifested through writing, planting, prototyping, reading together, walking and storytelling.
Read more...
DONHR subjects the gallery space to a collective rethinking, examining its relationship to consumption, waste, knowledge production, cycles of nature and community needs. This participatory project invites speculation and observation from non-human perspectives — such as a river, soil, plant or insect — in order to learn from systems and materials and establish new ways of thinking and being together. We ask (and attempt to answer) questions of sustainability and sustainment for uncertain futures.
In its first iteration, Make or Break worked on Bundjalung Country in Lismore with local communities, creating collective moments of future speculation, manifested through writing, planting, prototyping, reading together, walking and storytelling.
Read more...
Started: 2021
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Gabrielle Chantiri, Sigrid Macdonald, Mark Dunphy, Kylie Caldwell, Holly Ahern, Max Nimmo, Asphyxia, Dr Hanabeth Luke, Sara Schmude
environment // waste // critique // community // non-human // observation // systems // futures
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Gabrielle Chantiri, Sigrid Macdonald, Mark Dunphy, Kylie Caldwell, Holly Ahern, Max Nimmo, Asphyxia, Dr Hanabeth Luke, Sara Schmude
environment // waste // critique // community // non-human // observation // systems // futures
︎
Image: Make or Break, Ghost Notes, 2021, installation with text, algorithms, LED tickers, controller boards, and unidentified wrapped archival objects from the Fairfield City Heritage Collection. Dimensions variable. Image courtesy of Document Photography.
GHOST NOTES
When an object or record enters a collection, it is catalogued, and removed from context and use. We are left with a series of textual stand-ins: lists of numbers and words that are supposed to correspond to or encapsulate the category, location, content and cultural value of an archive or object.
In musical notation, a ghost note occupies space within a score, but its details are stripped away to the point of near silence. Ghost Notes responds to museum and other institutional digital archives. Mimicking the action of time on this particular museum collection, and exposing the role of language in erasing the objects they seek to preserve.
Read more...
When an object or record enters a collection, it is catalogued, and removed from context and use. We are left with a series of textual stand-ins: lists of numbers and words that are supposed to correspond to or encapsulate the category, location, content and cultural value of an archive or object.
In musical notation, a ghost note occupies space within a score, but its details are stripped away to the point of near silence. Ghost Notes responds to museum and other institutional digital archives. Mimicking the action of time on this particular museum collection, and exposing the role of language in erasing the objects they seek to preserve.
Read more...
Started: 2021
Time/Labour: ︎︎
Thanks to: Julian Berengut (programming), Wilson Wu (LED tech)
time // text // collection // critique // memory // erasure
Time/Labour: ︎︎
Thanks to: Julian Berengut (programming), Wilson Wu (LED tech)
time // text // collection // critique // memory // erasure
︎
Image: Nicole Monks and Make or Break, nganggurnmanha : sound dust, 2020, performance image featuring Ivey Wawn, photo by Jacquie Manning.
nganggurnmanha : sound dust (IN COLLABORATION WITH NICOLE MONKS)
nganggurnmanha : sound dust challenges audiences to listen deeply to the natural world and find ways to inhabit time differently. Responding to First Nations and Western concepts of time, nganggurnmanha : sound dust is an exploration of how time intertwines with nature, the body and seasonal shifts; and how our time is valued. nganggurnmanha : sound dust activates ‘deep time’ and reawakens body memories carried across generations, like tree roots pushing and stretching through strata, or rocks compressing over millennia.
The artists collected ‘sound dust’ fragments: field recordings contributed by local audiences in response to instructions for a ritual of listening, forming an alternate archive of now.
Read more...
nganggurnmanha : sound dust challenges audiences to listen deeply to the natural world and find ways to inhabit time differently. Responding to First Nations and Western concepts of time, nganggurnmanha : sound dust is an exploration of how time intertwines with nature, the body and seasonal shifts; and how our time is valued. nganggurnmanha : sound dust activates ‘deep time’ and reawakens body memories carried across generations, like tree roots pushing and stretching through strata, or rocks compressing over millennia.
The artists collected ‘sound dust’ fragments: field recordings contributed by local audiences in response to instructions for a ritual of listening, forming an alternate archive of now.
Read more...
Started: 2020
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎
Collaborators: Nicole Monks (co-lead), Gwen Taualai (sound technologist), Ndidi Alaneme (programming), Yolanda Lowatta & Ivey Wawn (performers), James King (costumes)
sound // listening // time // archive // instruction // moment // performance // instrument // body // space
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎
Collaborators: Nicole Monks (co-lead), Gwen Taualai (sound technologist), Ndidi Alaneme (programming), Yolanda Lowatta & Ivey Wawn (performers), James King (costumes)
sound // listening // time // archive // instruction // moment // performance // instrument // body // space
︎
Image: Make or Break, Care for Bridges, 2020, image courtesy of Make or Break.
CARE FOR BRIDGES
Care for Bridges proposes acts of care for infrastructure in shared, civic space. The public is invited to gather in small groups on public bridges, where bodies and vehicles pass over roads, valleys or bodies of water, and closely observe what kinds of care, maintenance or attention these structures might need. Through undertaking acts of care, we reshape — gradually and incrementally — the relations of bodies and worlds, and the water that passes between, beneath and through.
Writers are commissioned to produce short speculative fictions that act as portals through which the work can be entered. Each story becomes a lens to see a place in a new way; a gentle prompt; a mental warm up for an action audiences are asked to perform.
Read more...
Care for Bridges proposes acts of care for infrastructure in shared, civic space. The public is invited to gather in small groups on public bridges, where bodies and vehicles pass over roads, valleys or bodies of water, and closely observe what kinds of care, maintenance or attention these structures might need. Through undertaking acts of care, we reshape — gradually and incrementally — the relations of bodies and worlds, and the water that passes between, beneath and through.
Writers are commissioned to produce short speculative fictions that act as portals through which the work can be entered. Each story becomes a lens to see a place in a new way; a gentle prompt; a mental warm up for an action audiences are asked to perform.
Read more...
Started: 2020
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎
Writers and translators: Sarah Rodigari, Sarah Goffman, Sophea Lerner, Tom Gill, ArtLabOva, Make or Break, Masayuki Kawai, Sumi Hayashi, with special thanks to Aki Hoashi.
bridge // care // time // archive // water // salt // labour // instruction // digital // sculpture // infrastructure
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎
Writers and translators: Sarah Rodigari, Sarah Goffman, Sophea Lerner, Tom Gill, ArtLabOva, Make or Break, Masayuki Kawai, Sumi Hayashi, with special thanks to Aki Hoashi.
bridge // care // time // archive // water // salt // labour // instruction // digital // sculpture // infrastructure
︎
Image: Make or Break, Every Thing You Think You Know, 2020, billboard erasure project, photo by Ella Sowinska.
EVERY THING YOU THINK YOU KNOW
Every Thing You Think You Know is a public billboard erasure project. An unbranded billboard message is slowly redacted, with a letter removed daily over a period of weeks, creating a range of readings and meanings. This unidentified message was designed to be experienced incidentally, to create a moment of confusion or curiosity; a small intensity.
This project first unfolded in Naarm/Melbourne in May 2020 as part of Next Wave Festival's Assemble! Program. During Covid-19 lockdowns, Make or Break commissioned local artist, DJ and performer Niveen Abdelatty to visit the billboard daily and paste over its message one letter at a time.
Read more...
Every Thing You Think You Know is a public billboard erasure project. An unbranded billboard message is slowly redacted, with a letter removed daily over a period of weeks, creating a range of readings and meanings. This unidentified message was designed to be experienced incidentally, to create a moment of confusion or curiosity; a small intensity.
This project first unfolded in Naarm/Melbourne in May 2020 as part of Next Wave Festival's Assemble! Program. During Covid-19 lockdowns, Make or Break commissioned local artist, DJ and performer Niveen Abdelatty to visit the billboard daily and paste over its message one letter at a time.
Read more...
Started: 2020
Time/Labour: ︎
Thanks to: Niveen Abdelatty
billboard // erasure // text // knowledge // instruction
Time/Labour: ︎
Thanks to: Niveen Abdelatty
billboard // erasure // text // knowledge // instruction
︎
Image: Screenshot of Make or Break’s contribution to Rituals for Renewal.
RITUALS FOR RENEWAL
An online project curated by Tian Zhang, Rituals for Renewal asks artists to create responses to a period of isolation, and the introspection and reflection that this may bring. As the world begins to re-open (and re-close and re-open), and the old ways are called into question, how might rituals help us to re-imagine ourselves, our communities and our world, and ground these imaginings into practice?
Make or Break shared a collection of textual and video reflections on the idea of bridges.
Read more...
An online project curated by Tian Zhang, Rituals for Renewal asks artists to create responses to a period of isolation, and the introspection and reflection that this may bring. As the world begins to re-open (and re-close and re-open), and the old ways are called into question, how might rituals help us to re-imagine ourselves, our communities and our world, and ground these imaginings into practice?
Make or Break shared a collection of textual and video reflections on the idea of bridges.
Read more...
Started: 2020
Time/Labour:︎
time // slow // observation // video // text // portal
Time/Labour:︎
time // slow // observation // video // text // portal
︎
Image: Screenshot of the Next Wave Festival 2020 launch, with Make or Break’s Hyperlocal Headlines ticker, picturing speaker Libby Harward.
HYPERLOCAL HEADLINES
Hyperlocal Headlines are sourced from the personal and daily domestic observations and revelations of the general public, and uploaded to a series of digital news tickers or billboards in prominent public spaces. Contributors are invited via a targeted invitation or standalone website to submit observations from their front windows, bedroom, backyard or local street in the form of news-style headlines, that when combination build a delightfully detailed and offbeat picture of the hyperlocal.
Read more...
Hyperlocal Headlines are sourced from the personal and daily domestic observations and revelations of the general public, and uploaded to a series of digital news tickers or billboards in prominent public spaces. Contributors are invited via a targeted invitation or standalone website to submit observations from their front windows, bedroom, backyard or local street in the form of news-style headlines, that when combination build a delightfully detailed and offbeat picture of the hyperlocal.
Read more...
Started: 2020
Time/Labour:︎︎
time // text // crowdsource // observation // media // local // citizen // journalism
Time/Labour:︎︎
time // text // crowdsource // observation // media // local // citizen // journalism
︎︎︎
Image: courtesy of Make or Break and Despoinas Coven.
WRITING THE FEMINIST INTERNET (IN COLLABORATION WITH DESPOINAS COVEN)
Writing the Feminist Internet is a collaborative, generative, online ‘writing with’ session, where contributors respond — collaboratively and in real-time — to a text drafted by artist and academic Nancy Mauro-Flude in 2018. This text suggests a series of principles and lores for a Feminist Internet within ten working points. Participants meet online to write their own version of this manifesto, riffing off, reimagining, rejecting or rephrasing the original text live in a single open document.
Read more...
Writing the Feminist Internet is a collaborative, generative, online ‘writing with’ session, where contributors respond — collaboratively and in real-time — to a text drafted by artist and academic Nancy Mauro-Flude in 2018. This text suggests a series of principles and lores for a Feminist Internet within ten working points. Participants meet online to write their own version of this manifesto, riffing off, reimagining, rejecting or rephrasing the original text live in a single open document.
Read more...
Started: 2020
Time/Labour: ︎
Collaborators: Despoinas Coven (Nancy Mauro-Flude, Nicole Brimmer)
feminist // text // digital // open // source // internet // manifesto
Time/Labour: ︎
Collaborators: Despoinas Coven (Nancy Mauro-Flude, Nicole Brimmer)
feminist // text // digital // open // source // internet // manifesto
︎
Image: Courtesy of Make or Break.
LOVE LETTERS
Make or Break often writes with, to and about its projects. Mostly this is for their own process and thinking-through. In May 2020, a series of speculative letters to a project were published on Witness, a forum for independent critique and debate about the Australian performing arts that operated from 2017 - June 2021.
Make or Break had planned to debut an ambitious project as part of Naarm/Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival 2020. When the project was cancelled due to Covid-19, the artists began writing speculative letters between themselves and the project as a kind of grief therapy for an unrealised and unrealisable project.
Read more...
Make or Break often writes with, to and about its projects. Mostly this is for their own process and thinking-through. In May 2020, a series of speculative letters to a project were published on Witness, a forum for independent critique and debate about the Australian performing arts that operated from 2017 - June 2021.
Make or Break had planned to debut an ambitious project as part of Naarm/Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival 2020. When the project was cancelled due to Covid-19, the artists began writing speculative letters between themselves and the project as a kind of grief therapy for an unrealised and unrealisable project.
Read more...
Started: 2020
Time/Labour:︎
writing // thinking // grief // love // letter
Time/Labour:︎
writing // thinking // grief // love // letter
︎
Image: Make or Break, Influence Operation, 2019, installation view at Campbelltown Art Centre, photo by Document Photography.
INFLUENCE OPERATION
Information operations and warfare, also known as 'influence operations', describes the collection of tactical information about an adversary as well as the dissemination of propaganda in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It is now broadly associated with the use of (mis)information to achieve strategic, financial, cultural or political influence and, in some cases, change the outcomes of elections, policy and public perceptions.
How might artists and citizens participate in and ‘hack’ how information is gathered and broadcast, in the same ways that corporations and governments are already (legally) doing?
Read More...
Information operations and warfare, also known as 'influence operations', describes the collection of tactical information about an adversary as well as the dissemination of propaganda in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It is now broadly associated with the use of (mis)information to achieve strategic, financial, cultural or political influence and, in some cases, change the outcomes of elections, policy and public perceptions.
How might artists and citizens participate in and ‘hack’ how information is gathered and broadcast, in the same ways that corporations and governments are already (legally) doing?
Read More...
Started: 2019
Time/Labour:︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Benjamin Foster, Chris Nash, Gwen Taualai, Ian Milliss, Ben Barnes, Luke Bacon
influence // operation // media // news // cycle // citizen // journalism // subversive // power // technology
Time/Labour:︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Benjamin Foster, Chris Nash, Gwen Taualai, Ian Milliss, Ben Barnes, Luke Bacon
influence // operation // media // news // cycle // citizen // journalism // subversive // power // technology
︎
Image: Make or Break, Institutional Waste #1, 2020, installation view at Artspace, photo by Zan Wimberley.
INSTITUTIONAL WASTE
Institutional Waste is an ongoing investigation into waste processes in cultural institutions, and how this intersects with their complicated relationship with waged labour. The arts sector is often described as an ecosystem, suggesting that there are material and immaterial flows between institutions. Waste management is one way that these flows — or lack thereof — can be considered and critiqued.
Rehoming exhibition waste with smaller institutions or artist-run initiatives is one way to ‘reorganise the spreadsheet’ and support the rest of the sector, free up funds to pay artists a living wage and reduce landfill at a time of intensifying climate crisis.
Read More...
Institutional Waste is an ongoing investigation into waste processes in cultural institutions, and how this intersects with their complicated relationship with waged labour. The arts sector is often described as an ecosystem, suggesting that there are material and immaterial flows between institutions. Waste management is one way that these flows — or lack thereof — can be considered and critiqued.
Rehoming exhibition waste with smaller institutions or artist-run initiatives is one way to ‘reorganise the spreadsheet’ and support the rest of the sector, free up funds to pay artists a living wage and reduce landfill at a time of intensifying climate crisis.
Read More...
Started: 2019
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎
Thanks to: Luke Bacon, Miška Mandić, Del Lumanta
environment // waste // redistribution // reuse // activism // institutional // critique // letters // installation // video
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎
Thanks to: Luke Bacon, Miška Mandić, Del Lumanta
environment // waste // redistribution // reuse // activism // institutional // critique // letters // installation // video
︎
Image courtesy of Make or Break and Ruin Press.
TO ALL THE WOMEN OF KYNETON [BOOK]
This book brings together more than 60 community responses to Make or Break’s monuments survey as part of Unveilings for the inaugural Kyneton Contemporary Art Triennial.
For ten days in 2018, Make or Break asked female-identifying people in the Victorian town of Kyneton to propose a public artwork, monument or memorial for the town via an anonymous paper survey. The surveys were collected and displayed in a main street shop window, together with a series of live ‘unveiling' performances at secret locations around the town.
Read More...
This book brings together more than 60 community responses to Make or Break’s monuments survey as part of Unveilings for the inaugural Kyneton Contemporary Art Triennial.
For ten days in 2018, Make or Break asked female-identifying people in the Victorian town of Kyneton to propose a public artwork, monument or memorial for the town via an anonymous paper survey. The surveys were collected and displayed in a main street shop window, together with a series of live ‘unveiling' performances at secret locations around the town.
Read More...
Published 2019
Printed in Australia.
ISBN
978-0-6485808-0-5
First edition limited to 150 copies. 88 pages perfect bound.
Order online at Ruin Press $25.00 + shipping
Thanks to: Angela Garrick (Ruin Press), Katy B. Plummer and Sarah Rodigari (for their beautiful performances at the Sydney book launch), and everyone who filled out a survey.
book // publish // survey
Printed in Australia.
ISBN
978-0-6485808-0-5
First edition limited to 150 copies. 88 pages perfect bound.
Order online at Ruin Press $25.00 + shipping
Thanks to: Angela Garrick (Ruin Press), Katy B. Plummer and Sarah Rodigari (for their beautiful performances at the Sydney book launch), and everyone who filled out a survey.
book // publish // survey
︎
Image: Make or Break, Unveilings, 2018, performance still at Kyneton Contemporary Art Triennial, photo by Susan Gould.
UNVEILINGS
In Australia, there are more statues of animals and oversized fruit than there are memorials to (or about) women, and only a tiny fraction of public statues in Australia honour non-fictional, non-royal women: the vast majority honour dead, white men. Unveilings attempts to reverse this imbalance.
First commissioned in the rural town of Kyneton, Victoria, Make or Break survey female-identifying people to propose a public artwork, monument or memorial for their town. Anonymous paper surveys are collected and displayed in a main street shop window, and several are selected for further research by the artists, culminating in a series of walks and live performances at nearby sites of importance.
Read More...
In Australia, there are more statues of animals and oversized fruit than there are memorials to (or about) women, and only a tiny fraction of public statues in Australia honour non-fictional, non-royal women: the vast majority honour dead, white men. Unveilings attempts to reverse this imbalance.
First commissioned in the rural town of Kyneton, Victoria, Make or Break survey female-identifying people to propose a public artwork, monument or memorial for their town. Anonymous paper surveys are collected and displayed in a main street shop window, and several are selected for further research by the artists, culminating in a series of walks and live performances at nearby sites of importance.
Read More...
Started: 2018
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Michael Needham & Jud Wimhurst (roadies), Damien Butler (fabrication), Clare Heuston, Laurence Rosier Staines & Roslyn Helper (dramaturgy), Flophouse Kyneton and Dad & Dave (accommodation), Jason Waterhouse (The Caddy), and the whole KCAT team.
residency // monument // women // memory // civic // unveiling // survey // stories
Time/Labour: ︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Michael Needham & Jud Wimhurst (roadies), Damien Butler (fabrication), Clare Heuston, Laurence Rosier Staines & Roslyn Helper (dramaturgy), Flophouse Kyneton and Dad & Dave (accommodation), Jason Waterhouse (The Caddy), and the whole KCAT team.
residency // monument // women // memory // civic // unveiling // survey // stories
︎
Image: Make or Break, Labour Talks, 2019, archive image courtesy of Make or Break.
LABOUR TALKS
Labour Talks asks the public to reflect on the ways that their labour is valued. Make or Break conducts a series of one-on-two interviews, where people are asked to share their views concerning labour and value creation. Each interview is documented with a handwritten set of short notes, first name, age, occupation and a photograph of the person’s hands (labour symbols), slowly building an archive of labour relations.
Read More...
Labour Talks asks the public to reflect on the ways that their labour is valued. Make or Break conducts a series of one-on-two interviews, where people are asked to share their views concerning labour and value creation. Each interview is documented with a handwritten set of short notes, first name, age, occupation and a photograph of the person’s hands (labour symbols), slowly building an archive of labour relations.
Read More...
Started: 2019
Time/Labour:︎
labour // love // money // value // interview // archive
Time/Labour:︎
labour // love // money // value // interview // archive
︎
Image: Make or Break at Verge Gallery for The Failure Debate, 2018, image courtesy of Make or Break.
MILLSTONE MEDALLIONS
Make or Break performs an “award service” live, engraving personalised medallions and trophies made from rescued materials to celebrate minor moments of invisible labour, underpaid work and other inconsequential moments.
The Failure Debate at Verge Gallery, University of Sydney was part of the group exhibition Personal Best. Two teams of professionals from various fields explored the value of hard work and the joys of losing, to answer the question: “is it good to fail?”. Make or Break selected zingers and non-sequiturs from each speaker as they competed, and engraved live on personalised millstone medallions, presented to each speaker at the conclusion of the debate.
Read more...
Make or Break performs an “award service” live, engraving personalised medallions and trophies made from rescued materials to celebrate minor moments of invisible labour, underpaid work and other inconsequential moments.
The Failure Debate at Verge Gallery, University of Sydney was part of the group exhibition Personal Best. Two teams of professionals from various fields explored the value of hard work and the joys of losing, to answer the question: “is it good to fail?”. Make or Break selected zingers and non-sequiturs from each speaker as they competed, and engraved live on personalised millstone medallions, presented to each speaker at the conclusion of the debate.
Read more...
Started: 2018
Time/Labour:︎
Thanks to: Marcus White (Craft Metalwork)
labour // care // failure // debate // award // medal
Time/Labour:︎
Thanks to: Marcus White (Craft Metalwork)
labour // care // failure // debate // award // medal
︎
Image: Make or Break, ASMR Recovery Room, 2018, video still, image courtesy of Make or Break.
ASMR RECOVERY ROOM
ASMR Recovery Room is a one-person immersive experience of darkness, moving image, sound, smell and texture. It is an invitation to step into a different experience of time and space, and reconnect with the natural world through slow, sensory stimulus. This work was first presented in a transformed soccer-mom car for one night only, in an underground carpark as part of an artist-run carboot sale.
Read More...
ASMR Recovery Room is a one-person immersive experience of darkness, moving image, sound, smell and texture. It is an invitation to step into a different experience of time and space, and reconnect with the natural world through slow, sensory stimulus. This work was first presented in a transformed soccer-mom car for one night only, in an underground carpark as part of an artist-run carboot sale.
Read More...
Started: 2018
Time/Labour:︎
immersive // experience // video // audio // sound // scent // nature // ASMR
Time/Labour:︎
immersive // experience // video // audio // sound // scent // nature // ASMR
︎
Image: Make or Break, Invisible Labours of Love, 2017, process image at Freda’s for after pARTY, photo by Tim da-Rin.
INVISIBLE LABOURS OF LOVE
Make or Break performs an “award service” live, engraving personalised medallions and trophies made from rescued materials to celebrate minor moments of invisible labour, underpaid work and other inconsequential moments.
The first iteration of this project was for after pARTY, a themed club night at Freda’s curated by Anna May Kirk and Nerida Ross. Make or Break circulated forms for people to nominate loved ones’ invisible labours of love. Trophies were custom engraved live on stage, and presented during a continuous joyous ceremony on the night.
Read More...
Make or Break performs an “award service” live, engraving personalised medallions and trophies made from rescued materials to celebrate minor moments of invisible labour, underpaid work and other inconsequential moments.
The first iteration of this project was for after pARTY, a themed club night at Freda’s curated by Anna May Kirk and Nerida Ross. Make or Break circulated forms for people to nominate loved ones’ invisible labours of love. Trophies were custom engraved live on stage, and presented during a continuous joyous ceremony on the night.
Read More...
Started: 2017
Time/Labour:︎
labour // care // celebration // awards // engraving
Time/Labour:︎
labour // care // celebration // awards // engraving
︎
Image: Make or Break, Merch Stand, 2017, image of bicycle cart during Underbelly Arts Festival, photo by Tim da-Rin.
MERCH STAND
Merch Stand creates a speculative economy and collective income stream within an experimental arts festival. It is a framework for providing direct financial support to artists, while critiquing the arts festival model and its underpaying of artists working in performance, experiential and ephemeral practices. It is also a platform for hosting difficult conversations around value, labour and privilege.
Merch Stand was first commissioned for Underbelly Arts Lab & Festival in 2017. Make or Break collaborated with each of the 21 Festival artists and collectives to produce custom merchandise. The merch was produced and packaged in an on-site “factory” staffed by the artists and volunteers, and sold live at the festival via a bicycle-powered cart, and online via a hacked Shopify platform.
Read More...
Merch Stand creates a speculative economy and collective income stream within an experimental arts festival. It is a framework for providing direct financial support to artists, while critiquing the arts festival model and its underpaying of artists working in performance, experiential and ephemeral practices. It is also a platform for hosting difficult conversations around value, labour and privilege.
Merch Stand was first commissioned for Underbelly Arts Lab & Festival in 2017. Make or Break collaborated with each of the 21 Festival artists and collectives to produce custom merchandise. The merch was produced and packaged in an on-site “factory” staffed by the artists and volunteers, and sold live at the festival via a bicycle-powered cart, and online via a hacked Shopify platform.
Read More...
Started: 2017
Time/Labour:︎︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Andrew Christie (casting, 3D printing/scanning), Josh Gilchrist (screenprinting), Kirtika Kain (factory), Love Police (merch supplies), Benjamin Forster (hacked Shopify platform), Jane Wolfers (sewing), Underbelly artists + everyone who bought merch
economy // merchandise // patronage // privilege // support // labour // conversations // online
Time/Labour:︎︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Andrew Christie (casting, 3D printing/scanning), Josh Gilchrist (screenprinting), Kirtika Kain (factory), Love Police (merch supplies), Benjamin Forster (hacked Shopify platform), Jane Wolfers (sewing), Underbelly artists + everyone who bought merch
economy // merchandise // patronage // privilege // support // labour // conversations // online
︎
Image: Make or Break, Valuation 2, 2018, performed by Beth Dillon at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, photo by Rebecca Gallo.
VALUATION
Valuation is an iterative series of online and physical works. It is a process through which Make or Break attempts to understand the way that art market value — of both artworks and art work — is determined and upheld, especially for works that have little or no physical trace. This series critiques the subjectivity of value generation and the fragility of currencies, and exposes the complex combination of labour, care and power that exists in relationships between artists and curators.
In September 2016, Make or Break first commissioned an accredited valuer under the Australian Cultural Gifts Program to place a dollar value on Make or Break Studio, the collective’s first work, to be accompanied by a written report.
Read More...
Valuation is an iterative series of online and physical works. It is a process through which Make or Break attempts to understand the way that art market value — of both artworks and art work — is determined and upheld, especially for works that have little or no physical trace. This series critiques the subjectivity of value generation and the fragility of currencies, and exposes the complex combination of labour, care and power that exists in relationships between artists and curators.
In September 2016, Make or Break first commissioned an accredited valuer under the Australian Cultural Gifts Program to place a dollar value on Make or Break Studio, the collective’s first work, to be accompanied by a written report.
Read More...
Started: 2016
Time/Labour:︎︎
Collaborators: Noica Omero (costume), Rhiannon Newton (choreographer/performer), Beth Dillon (choreographer/performer), Lisa Corsi (valuer), Anna Waldmann (valuer)
value // labour // valuation // report // performance // video // instruction // wallpaper // currency
Time/Labour:︎︎
Collaborators: Noica Omero (costume), Rhiannon Newton (choreographer/performer), Beth Dillon (choreographer/performer), Lisa Corsi (valuer), Anna Waldmann (valuer)
value // labour // valuation // report // performance // video // instruction // wallpaper // currency
︎
Image: Make or Break, One Day Currency, 2016, promotional image courtesy of Make or Break.
ONE DAY CURRENCY
This project asks: what unexpected modes of exchange can emerge in the space of a single day? Are there different ways to do economy? What privileges or systemic inequalities are exposed through the circulation (or not) of currency?
This live project circulates temporary 'currencies’ at art events, giving access to exclusive experiences and consumables. People might choose to retain their currency, give it away or trade it. It is these decisions — the way that a currency is shared, circulated or hoarded — that provoke uncomfortable questions, provide insights into the links between economic systems, personal relationships and privilege, and give this project its meaning.
Read more...
This project asks: what unexpected modes of exchange can emerge in the space of a single day? Are there different ways to do economy? What privileges or systemic inequalities are exposed through the circulation (or not) of currency?
This live project circulates temporary 'currencies’ at art events, giving access to exclusive experiences and consumables. People might choose to retain their currency, give it away or trade it. It is these decisions — the way that a currency is shared, circulated or hoarded — that provoke uncomfortable questions, provide insights into the links between economic systems, personal relationships and privilege, and give this project its meaning.
Read more...
Started: 2016
Time/Labour:︎︎
economy // experiment // currency // exchange // wearable
Time/Labour:︎︎
economy // experiment // currency // exchange // wearable
︎
Image: Make or Break, Radicalising the Artist’s Biography, 2016, workshop session at the Queen Victoria Market, photo courtesy of Sanné Mestrom and Jamie Hall.
RADICALISING THE ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY
In this practical, collaborative workshop, we re-think how to write (or draw, diagram, film, talk) about ourselves as artists. Who benefits from the formulas and hierarchies artists use to represent artists and art work? Can the artist bio become a starting point for reframing how artists' labour is valued and understood?
Read more...
In this practical, collaborative workshop, we re-think how to write (or draw, diagram, film, talk) about ourselves as artists. Who benefits from the formulas and hierarchies artists use to represent artists and art work? Can the artist bio become a starting point for reframing how artists' labour is valued and understood?
Read more...
Started: 2016
Time/Labour:︎
biography // experiment // culture // capital // language
Time/Labour:︎
biography // experiment // culture // capital // language
︎
Image: Courtesy of Make or Break.
LIFE ADMIN
In return for an artist fee, Make or Break shares their life admin process for a predetermined period of time. Dressed in gold lamé onesies, the artists stand at their laptops at a gold table, with both of their screens live-projected onto the wall behind them. They do not communicate, other than through their computers.
This work makes visible the unpaid labour of artists, and exposes conversations, disagreements, banalities and other activities in the life of an artist. Audiences witness the reading and sending of private emails, applying for grants, paying utility bills and studio rent, and whatever arrives in the artists’ inboxes at that particular time.
Read more...
In return for an artist fee, Make or Break shares their life admin process for a predetermined period of time. Dressed in gold lamé onesies, the artists stand at their laptops at a gold table, with both of their screens live-projected onto the wall behind them. They do not communicate, other than through their computers.
This work makes visible the unpaid labour of artists, and exposes conversations, disagreements, banalities and other activities in the life of an artist. Audiences witness the reading and sending of private emails, applying for grants, paying utility bills and studio rent, and whatever arrives in the artists’ inboxes at that particular time.
Read more...
Started: 2016
Time/Labour:︎
Thanks to: Noica Omero (costumes)
economy // currency // labour // privacy // gold
Time/Labour:︎
Thanks to: Noica Omero (costumes)
economy // currency // labour // privacy // gold
︎
Image: Make or Break, Biography, 2016, 2 x risograph prints in blue ink on pink 90gsm copy paper, A4 size (21 x 29.7 cm x 2 prints), edition of 25 + 2AP, install image courtesy of Make or Break.
BIOGRAPHY
Biography is a visual accumulation of artist labour, and the often-inadequate methods we use to qualify and quantify it. These limited edition risograph prints contain all of Make or Break, Rebecca Gallo and Connie Anthes’ published artist biographies to date, printed one on top of the other, from oldest to most recent.
This work was first made in 2016. Print pairs (Rebecca Gallo and Connie Anthes / ed. 25 + 2AP) or singles (Make or Break / ed. unlimited) can be purchased for $300 (unframed) or $500 (framed), contact makeorbreakart [at] gmail [dot] com
Read more...
Biography is a visual accumulation of artist labour, and the often-inadequate methods we use to qualify and quantify it. These limited edition risograph prints contain all of Make or Break, Rebecca Gallo and Connie Anthes’ published artist biographies to date, printed one on top of the other, from oldest to most recent.
This work was first made in 2016. Print pairs (Rebecca Gallo and Connie Anthes / ed. 25 + 2AP) or singles (Make or Break / ed. unlimited) can be purchased for $300 (unframed) or $500 (framed), contact makeorbreakart [at] gmail [dot] com
Read more...
Started: 2016
Time/Labour:︎
labour // overwriting // biography // time
Time/Labour:︎
labour // overwriting // biography // time
︎
Image: Make or Break book, by Connie Anthes & Rebecca Gallo, pub. 2016, image courtesy of Make or Break.
MAKE OR BREAK [BOOK]
This book is both a reflection and extension of Make or Break’s first project, Make or Break Studio. It features critical essays by David Eastwood, Bek Conroy, Connie Anthes and Rebecca Gallo, exploring the value of artist labour, collaboration and the histories and politics of the artist studio. The first edition was vacuum-sealed in plastic, along with a sprinkling of artist studio rubble.
Make or Break book was self-published following the first iteration of Make or Break Studio, which took place in December 2015 at Firstdraft Gallery in Sydney.
Read more...
This book is both a reflection and extension of Make or Break’s first project, Make or Break Studio. It features critical essays by David Eastwood, Bek Conroy, Connie Anthes and Rebecca Gallo, exploring the value of artist labour, collaboration and the histories and politics of the artist studio. The first edition was vacuum-sealed in plastic, along with a sprinkling of artist studio rubble.
Make or Break book was self-published following the first iteration of Make or Break Studio, which took place in December 2015 at Firstdraft Gallery in Sydney.
Read more...
Published 2016
ISBN 9781367657243
270 pages, soft cover, perfect bound.
Order Make or Break book
writing // thinking // labour // studio // artist // audience
ISBN 9781367657243
270 pages, soft cover, perfect bound.
Order Make or Break book
writing // thinking // labour // studio // artist // audience
︎
Image: Make or Break Studio, 2015, documentation at Firstdraft, NSW, photo by Document Photography.
MAKE OR BREAK STUDIO
Make or Break Studio is an open examination of art-making as a kind of performance, and an opportunity to challenge the value of art objects and artist labour. It is a repurposing of valuable inner city real estate (a gallery) as a space for experimenting, thinking and doing (a studio). It acknowledges and makes visible the flows of influence, ideas and materials between artists, audiences and other stakeholders.
Starting on opening night and continuing for the duration of the exhibition, two artists engage in a daily art-making relay, continuing or destroying the work that the other had made during their previous session, as if it were their own.
Read more...
Make or Break Studio is an open examination of art-making as a kind of performance, and an opportunity to challenge the value of art objects and artist labour. It is a repurposing of valuable inner city real estate (a gallery) as a space for experimenting, thinking and doing (a studio). It acknowledges and makes visible the flows of influence, ideas and materials between artists, audiences and other stakeholders.
Starting on opening night and continuing for the duration of the exhibition, two artists engage in a daily art-making relay, continuing or destroying the work that the other had made during their previous session, as if it were their own.
Read more...
Started: 2015
Time/Labour:︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Third Chair contributors Clare Cooper, Bek Conroy, David Eastwood, David Greenhalgh, Ele Jansen, Ian Milliss, and everyone who visited and donated materials to Make or Break Studio
labour // value // studio // collaboration // build // repurpose // time // space // library // conversation
Time/Labour:︎︎︎︎
Thanks to: Third Chair contributors Clare Cooper, Bek Conroy, David Eastwood, David Greenhalgh, Ele Jansen, Ian Milliss, and everyone who visited and donated materials to Make or Break Studio
labour // value // studio // collaboration // build // repurpose // time // space // library // conversation