werkstadt graz rainer ganahl tea party jewelry reading

Tea party - Werkstadtgraz exhibition - the exhibition TEA PARTY - WITH MARX, LENIN, MAO, JARRY, TEA, T-SHIRTS, CHINA AND JEWELRY

jewelry - neckless / necklace / bronze / porcelain / .... it is what it is... jewelry

tea party - proper tea is theft .... drawings... and china

Tea party readings - Monday - Marx, Tuesday -Lenin, Wednesday - Mao, Thursday - Alfred Jarry, Friday - Tristan Tzara, Saturday - Financial Times

having proper tea .... with ...

site still under construction... still more to come

TEA PARTY

with Marx, Lenin, Mao, Jarry, Tzara, tea, t-Shirts, china and jewelry

Werkstadt Graz, July, August 2010 - reading daily Mo - Sat. July 4 - 10th, 2010

opening and exhibition July 10th, 2010

This exhibition in Graz, Austria consists of various elements that different stages: invited to do something in the gallery that required my presence I decided to do a one week reading seminar with changing authors that had meaning for me. Based on a vague memory of a photograph of some graffiti in Paris 1968 that showed "lundi Marx, mardi Mao" I came up with reading schedule: Monday - Marx, Tuesday - Lenin, Wednesday - Mao, Thursday - Jarry; Friday - Tzara, Saturday - The Financial Times. On each day, I was reading for 2 hours in the gallery with a flactuating amount of people. Given the hot temperatures and the fact that nobody has air conditioning there, I was surprised even somebody showed up in the middle of the after noon during Summer vacactions. Reading seminars have been part of my art practices since 1994 in a regular pace (see more: A way with books)

For these readings, the director of the artist run space, Joachim Baur, proposed to turn the gallery into a coffee house. Given the fact that I don't drink coffee but that I'm passionate about tea, I asked to work with tea. After only a little research, I found out that Marx prefered Lemon Grass tea and countered Proudhon's famous sentence 'Property is theft' with his own commodity oriented version 'Proper Tea is Theft' - a true statement given the colonial nature of tea. Lenin, which has been already been a favorit protagonist in my work (see dadalenin.com) was one of the most interesting critic of imperialism writing his famous book 'Imperialism the highest stage of capitalism' in Zurich living opposite the cabaret Voltaire, birth place of Dada with the host Tristan Tzara. In that place, during World War I (quite some young people ignore that event already) Hugo Ball was reading UBU KING by Alfred Jarry, another of my literary heros and subjects of my work (Alfred Jarry). Drinking from a fine assortiment of Proper Tea I couldn't but think of the current right wing movement in the USA which calls itself Tea Party. Since I really hate this right wing, anti-immigrant, anti-Obama movement and there appropriation of a great historical moment in US history (Boston Tea Party) I decided to call the show tea part and make work around it. A series of 4 photographs of the teas we drank, telling of the imperialist context of tea culture were on display as well as two sets of china I specifically made of porcelain for this show.

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The very last aspect of the show which really made this exhibition for me very special and specific was addrissing the fact that Joachen Baur and his wife Barbara are professional and very accomplished goldsmiths and still working in this profession. Hence I designed a series of bronze jewelry which refered to aspects of my work with Marx, Lenin, Mao, the bicycle and other elements of my interests. For dadalenin I already had drawings and was finally able to implement them in Bronze and ceramics. Not being afraid of any restrictions and limitations of what a conceptual artist is supposed to do, I follow my principle of instinctive pleasure, esthetic fun and contextual opportunities. The shows was rounded up with recent video 'I hate Karl Marx' (since I am creating post-soviet micro -monuments for this man I can bash him a little bit - see also this video not shown in Graz).

(PS: I had a very good time in Graz, the Baurs are fantastic people and excellent hosts for me and my family -- Edgar modelling here with DAS KAPITAL (bronze) --- which in the end is human !!!)