INTRODUCTION

Exchanging an Item for an Image...

Over the past year, as a newly graduated artist, I have been supplementing my income by running a vintage stall, selling clothing and home ware from the 60s 70s and 80s.

This has involved the highly enjoyable process of: searching for beautiful bargains (in charity shops, flea markets and at car boot sales), cleaning them up and then selling them on for a profit.

I've found that there's something liberating about this transient kind of ownership. It's given me license to buy lots of lovely things; to handle them and look at them, absorbing their charm for a short while… before letting them go and continuing the hunt. Somehow I wasn't sad to say goodbye.

This process led me to question the nature of how we relate to and appreciate objects. How important is physical ownership? Is just looking enough?

Recently I decided to call time on my deliciously indulgent money making pursuit - which was increasingly filling up my time, my bedroom, and my thoughts, in order to focus on my artwork and spend more time in my studio. What began as a means to support my artistic practice had taken over a bit too much...

However, the issues of ownership and transience which arose from my time spent buying and selling have become interesting as a creative process in their own right, and I want to explore them further...

So, I've decided to subvert the trading process by sending the remaining stock from my vintage stall out into the world as 'gifts'. These will be placed strategically in public places - hanging in trees, on railings, from lamp posts...waiting to be found.

In place of a price tag each item will have attached to it a note for its 'finder'. This will simply request photographic documentation of the item in its new context, wherever it should end up...to be sent to withlovefromtheartist@gmail.com. Effectively I hope to exchange an item, for an image, in a kind of reverse ebay transaction.

Of course I can't control who will find my objects, whether or not they will be appreciated, or whether my request for an emailed image will be honoured. This element of chance is part of the substance of the project - exploring the nature of exchanging objects.

I'll be using this blog to document the progress of the things I send out, posting photographs of them in situ where I abandon them to fate, and then (hopefully) posting the photographs I receive via email.

Fingers crossed, I'll have somethng to report soon. Watch This Space...