Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Transition, London, 3 December;
Conflux, New York, 14-17 September;
Manchester, ongoing
Reviewed by: Alex Michon
Hilary Jack is one of a growing number of artists whose work deals with issues which can broadly be described as ‘social’, but are a million miles away from the type of patronising, worthy practices which are often imposed from above in the name of public art. Jack describes her research as “socially interactive” and her work involves the collection, repair and redistribution of discarded objects on city streets. Her Make Do and Mend project began when she noticed the large number of abandoned umbrellas on the streets of Manchester, which she duly repaired in her studio before returning them to their original locations. In September, Jack was invited to perform her project in New York as part of the Conflux festival for contemporary psychogeography. In the area surrounding the McCaig Welles Gallery in Williamsburg she found a crushed silver and turquoise ring which she polished, repaired and engraved with the words ‘Repaired by Hilary Jack’ before returning it to the streets. At Transition, as part of the gallery’s ‘Supernature’ series dealing with artists’ relationship to the environment, Jack spent a day playing a selection of records (including various 1970s disco tracks and Ken Dodd’s Tears) which she had found scattered around the nearby streets before inviting audience members to accompany her in returning a pair of beautifully restored and engraved men’s shoes to a nearby bus stop.
Make Do and Mend may tick all the right boxes by being publicly engaged and posing important questions about obsolescence, yet the project is more poetic than polemic. Even though the artist is happy to take on the role of the artist as urban activist in a similar manner to the Guerilla Gardeners the work is also about the aesthetics of the hand-made in opposition to grand government sponsored gestures.
Writer detail:
Alex Michon is an artist, writer and editor of the review publication ‘The Critical Friend’
Venue detail:
Apartment
49 Lamport Court, Lamport Close, Ardwick, Manchester M17EG
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