Download the e-Catalogue for the exhibition "Common Room"

Put this together to share my recent exhibition in Johannesburg with you.

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Cc: Everybody for 'AfterColour'

*retro blogging*. Here's a few process and installation shots of the most recent edition of Cc:Everybody, done for Brianna McCarthy's 'AfterColour' exhibition in March at Medulla Gallery in PoS. The show explored the desires around / dynamics of skin colour / shadism so these six recent Trinidad classified ads were selected to spur that discussion. Grainy process fotos by urs truly, photos of the opening by mr arnaldojam.es ++

some snaps i took while making the risk zine & performance elements, first at anstey's building, downtown jhb, then at the 12 decades art hotel in jeppestown, then making 'cc:everybody' signs in my room at 12 decades and finally at the nirox projects space and installing there for the show. missing now the feeling of temporarily knowing exactly what my purpose is. but i have some ideas for two projects that im excited about. photo projects, surprisingly. so i will document these joburg works here, and move to that newer purpose. in a conversation this afternoon, a friend said 'i dont know what the purpose of art IS.. other than to make a living..'. we discussed the value of the more journalistic elements of the things we're excited about making lately, and resolved to start presenting things more as journalism than as 'art'. here. to be useful in the ways that we want to be. ++

"Cc: Everybody" cont'd at Erotic Art Week 2011

Cc: Everybody is a project by Brianna McCarthy and myself in which tiny black & white classified ads from the local daily newspapers are reproduced, word for word, on huge, colourful, hand-painted 'party signs' (a traditional style of guerilla advertising used here to blast event details to everyone passing in the street ["Cc-ing" everybody]).

The intention is to play with the varying levels of intended 'publicness' of the classifieds to try and open up discussion about their changing appearance, and to document the change. Are we cool with this being public info? If yes, is it okay to blast these messages louder than their original size, or can we only say it so loud? A decade ago, ads like these didn't exist, so there's actually a lot of information in them about how we're communicating with each other right now.

The title of each piece is the date it was published and the newspaper it was published in. These two are "Trindad Guardian, 20 April, 2011" (Text…) and "Daily Express Classifieds, 20 APR, 2011" (Gaza…).

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A note on the change in process/aesthetic in making last year's signs compared to these new ones:

Last year's signs, if you're familiar with the incredibly skilfully painted street signs popularised by Bruce Cayone, possibly seemed a little inauthentic. Maybe they fell into the uncanny valley because, try as we did, given our level of experience making signs, they were no Cayones. This year we realised that instead of speaking a less-than-fluent version of that language, we would embrace our own dialect/tools/skills and produce what would still be recognised by any trini as a party sign, but maybe just another/newer kind. This version does away with horizontal color banding in favour of vertical, textured washes and introduces the use of ornament in the form of lino prints, metallic inks and gold dust in addition to the traditional emulsion. The lettering is also much improved. We are extremely pleased with the movement.

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installation/detail views:

Cc: Everybody

Hello.

This is a project by Brianna McCarthy and myself - our first collaborative work :]

The texts in the signs we made are copied from actual classified ads and the title of each piece is name of the local newspaper the ad was found in and the date of publication.

We've been working on this for months now and since the nature of the content of some of the pieces fit right in with Erotic Art Week's intention of opening discussion around sex and sexuality in Trinidad, we're exhibiting the first wave of signs at EAW2010.

Cc: Everybody is installed at Studio (on the corner of Ariapita Avenue and Luis Street (pictured below)) and at Brooklyn Bar (corner Roberts and Carlos streets, woodbrook (images to follow)). Pieces are being offered for sale and will be on show for all of Erotic Art Week, 21-31 July, 2010.

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Cc: Everybody

Classified, Confidential - Everybody

Cc: Everybody explores the notion of privacy in the public domain. The project engages two common local media: the personals that appear in the national newspapers and a form of guerrilla street advertising developed locally to promote public parties. The publication of these, sometimes explicit, personal ads in the national domain may be considered surprising, given the context of a conservative, post-colonial island community. Cc: Everybody captures these private bits of black and white content and reproduces them, verbatim, in a most public and colourful medium. Cc:Everybody presents and interrelates this contemporary dichotomy as erotic art.

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Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Trinidad Guardian Classifieds - 8th February, 2010 (No. 5)


Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Sunday Express Classifieds - 24th January, 2010


Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Trinidad Guardian Classifieds - 8th February, 2010 (No. 3)


Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Installation View at Studio on Ariapita Avenue Port of Spain - IMG_3


Brianna McCarthy & Rodell Warner - Cc: Everybody
Installation View at Studio on Ariapita Avenue Port of Spain - IMG_2

More photos of the work; finished, in progress and installed; can be viewed in this flickr set and will be added in the coming days.

:]

-Rodell.