Shop + Office calls attention to the distinct art of Tom Saunders and Idéfix Bloc. The works in this exhibition appropriate the language and methodologies of advertising, business and retail to ask important questions about that which we make, display and sell today.
The Emerging Artist Derivative Contract is a pioneering private investment structure developed by Tom Saunders. Three derivative contracts are available through murmurART that entitle the bearer to a work of art by Tom Saunders in 10 years. This art work interrogates the term 'Emerging Artist' and the conviction that an artist should make progress as time passes. The financial world operates according to the same principles and employs the same language, assuming that investments must "mature" - and thereby become more valuable - as they age. The concept was advanced in reaction to the space and unsaleability of the artist's work in its current form.
Idéfix Bloc is a pseudonymous collective identity adopted uniquely for the purpose of this exhibition. Operating between a collective and a cell, Idéfix Bloc aims to offer alternative models for the conception and production of cultural objects. In its de-individuating, collegiate method of practice, Idéfix Bloc seeks to develop a more direct critique of the process of cultural production in contemporary society. After the show, Idéfix Bloc will disband ready to coalesce as a new identity solely when circumstances seem favourable.
The show is a collaboration between the artists and murmurART, 20 Hoxton Square Projects, Hannah Barry, and Guy Gormley.
Press coverage:
The Times: 'A new concept in art as an investment'
Reuters: Even buying art is art with new financial product'
London Evening Standard: 'Artist draws up contract for a share in success'
Intersecting Images: 'Emerging artist derivative contract - Tom Saunders - consumer goods'
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