Part time Artist Full Time Idiot
17 May – 2 July 2023

Acts of repetition, labour, and the repetition of labour are never far from one’s mind when viewing Steven Emmanuel’s work in Part Time Art Full Time Idiot. With the exception of a placeholder wall text and a skirting-height projection, works are distributed across the gallery floor. Although displayed as discrete objects, many belong within ongoing actions that exist outside of the gallery in the artist’s everyday life: a white ball being painted near daily since 2009, a photobook produced every time a photograph is required for an identity document, a Euro banknote sculpture made after every encounter with a Richard Serra work, a book distributed one copy at a time as a gift, and the replacement of the word ‘art’ with ‘biscuit’ in his spoken vocabulary. 

Even when an artwork does not have an obvious ongoing life beyond the gallery, such as the hundreds and thousands meticulously sorted into layers of separate colour and the coiled judo belt with the artist’s black trouser belt added, they still impress upon the viewer a period of time and labour involved.

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