In 2009 my good friend and collaborator, Gabrielle Amodeo and I instigated A Chronological Manor, an ongoing experimental project in which a loose collective of artists investigate the generative potential of the group dynamic. The intention of the project is to harness the friction and discursive conversation arising as individual’s practices rub together to inform a series of exhibitions, workshops and publications.
The methodology thus far has been for the artists involved in a particular project to identify an area of common interest and work on developing a conversation between their individual practices through online conversations via blog, informal workshops and exhibitions. A collaborative dynamic is established through the process of influencing and responding to influence, and identifying how work is changed by the presence of other’s work. Rather than considering an exhibition or publication as resolution and end point for an inquiry it is considered as a dynamic for the ongoing production of work. The outcome, be it exhibition, workshop or publication, becomes as a visual proposition, a moment in an open ended conversation rather than a point of summation.
The artists in A Chronological Manor work from the understanding that there is no definitive endpoint or tidy conclusion in art making. As the project continues there is the possibility for the engaged viewer to follow the artist’s thinking over a series of encounters, thus positioning art as an ongoing process of questioning, observing and reflecting.
check out our blog for more detail and to see how our current projects are going. inachronologicalmanor.tumblr.com
2010 projects
Drawing (for the given value of drawing) – Blue Oyster, Dunedin
September 2010
JILL SORENSEN 