Getting Rid of Ourselves

An exhibition and public events programme, ‘Getting Rid of Ourselves’ explored the aesthetic and political possibilities of obscuring, delegating, withdrawing or complicating the conventional signs of authorship and artistic subjectivity. Through the various tactics of anonymity, collectivity, shared authorship, appropriated identities, delegated production, and financial speculation that it presented, the exhibition questioned the link between art and self-expression. Highlighting how subjectivity is treated as a form of living currency to exploit, market and sell to, the exhibition argued for the diffusion and distribution of artistic agency and intellectual property. 'Getting Rid of Ourselves' brought together practices that refuse to engage in the tireless self-promotional cycle inherent to artistic and art world labour. Instead of submitting to being exploited as forms of living currency, the exhibition posited collective creative endeavours as alternatives to individualized pursuits. Rather than presenting a series of discrete works, the exhibition attempted to perform some of the conditions that it delineated. A key tactic was to blur curatorial and artistic gestures. The installation design by Kernel, for instance, created a series of simultaneously controlling and permeable mesh barriers or cages, while the sculptural installation of Adrian Blackwell, which doubled as gallery seating for public events. Claire Fontaine’s tennis ball sculptures containing contraband, sprawling out over the floor, also added to the sensory experience of the installation, while introducing an element of instability. The title of another of their works directed viewers to instructions on how to pick locks. Another example of how artistic and curatorial gestures were blurred was Goldin+Senneby’s investment of artists’ and curatorial fees over the course of the show according to a secret algorithm. As Sam Cotter described in his review of the exhibition in C Magazine: “The exhibition is not so much an inventory of artistic strategies as a holistic alternative to these systems, functioning more as a model of self-mobilization than a collection of autonomous artworks.” Artists participating in the exhibition were Becky Beasley, Adrian Blackwell, Heath Bunting, Jesse Darling, Kajsa Dahlberg, Claire Fontaine, Goldin + Senneby, Janez Janša Janez Janša Janez Janša, and Kernel.