Additional Artists Wanted for Upcoming Assemblage Project

Any area artists interested in participating in an upcoming assemblage project? My best friend Chris Dyer [of Marfa Correspondence Society] and I haven't lived in the same city at the same time since we did this assemblage project years ago in Seattle. We've always talked about having another go at this project and we made plans from afar which worked out some but was slow moving at least. But as it happens we both find ourselves living in Marfa and we've been preparing everything in order to start as soon as possible. Ideally we'll start in on this in the next month or so and this time around we want to open the thing up so that others can do the same project along with us. And it's with that in mind that we're inviting other area artists to participate in this with us.

[This isn't a sales pitch, so you know up front, and we're not hitting you up for loot or anything like that. We just happen to know the value of having done this sort of thing and we also have a small surplus of shadow boxes and, yeah, it's just good to have others to be accountable to. This isn't some easy thing to undertake and there will be times you'll probably want to quit. Anyway, the point is that we don't want or need anything at all. Just some other people who might be up for giving the thing a try.]

What's the Deal?
The 52 Weeks project is a year-long visual diary and every week [from Sunday to Sunday] we’d create an assemblage using found objects and ephemera we'd collected during the week. Original work of all sorts and in all mediums are created and the idea is just to visually represent your experiences during that particular week. And then do that every week for a year. 

We also kept a written journal to complement the visual entries and each weekly entry included an itemized list of the contents of each box. The written entries would ideally be a detailed record of your week. There was a small edition printed for the exhibitions and shows and the book included all of the unexpurgated daily entries from each artist and you’re encouraged to do the same.

 
[Week 18 was Thanksgiving and for this one I featured a nod William S. Burroughs and his Thanksgiving Prayer poem.]

PLEASE NOTE: You should probably pause here to go check out the website that describes the whole thing and you can check out the finished pieces from the first run of the project. Basically we’re doing the same thing as before but we’re using a bit larger box and we’re inviting others to join in with us. Anyway, yeah, the site is www.anti-product.com and look for the 52 Weeks section. There is a decent post that served as the introduction to the original 52 Weeks project HERE.

A decent blog post that describes the idea of doing the project again all these years later is worth reading too. That post is here: www.anti-product.com/news/52-weeks-revisited and another page to look over is HERE. You can always send a text or give me a call [the number is below and is included in that Imgur album to thwart the robots from getting it] You can also DM me here to get it and I’m glad give you answers to any questions you might have. But, no kidding, it's going to be something that is challenging but it's worth it and having others doing it with you will make it seem easy most times.



Okay? So where were we? Okay.

So these underlying shadow boxes we’re using are about 6”x6”x~3” with a plexiglass front. They are super-basic as the idea is that they will probably be altered to a degree that makes the underlying appearance of the boxes a bit unimportant.

Images of the outsourced boxes are posted to this Imgur album [if they are not embedded in this post] and they fit a CD and sleeve on the inside of the box.



We originally had the bright idea to fabricate our own shadow boxes and we quit with that when we found a factory where we could outsource the work and between those efforts we have enough boxes to get a small handful of other artists set up with a set of boxes.

The ones we did end up producing ourselves are simple and just require some wood glue and a big rubber band to assemble and the photos posted to that same album will give you an idea of what that looks like.





This is a project that will take an entire year and after they are completed the finished works will be included in a museum or gallery exhibition but you’re not required to do that. And you definitely don’t need to decide that right now. You don’t have to live in Marfa or the area in order to participate either but ideally you’d be around here when we start and it’d be best if we all had a meeting to hammer out the plan and start date. But the pieces can be done wherever you travel to and it's a portable journal in many ways. 

The ideal start date is sometime in the next month or so. We still have to add the hanging hardware on the backs of the boxes and some other small details need to be worked out but for the most part we’re good to go and just wanna see if there are other local artists that might be up for giving this a shot. We have enough extra boxes to accomodate maybe five or so other people and you don't need to do much beyond give us your input on the project and give us a hand some evening over beers to assembly-line glue a couple of hundred shadow boxes together if you're up for that. But really you don't need to do anything beyond giving it a shot. [We would like to have any participants agree to do a 10 week run to decide if it's something that they will want to really keep doing. That's not set in stone and none of this is but, yeah, we can figure it out.]

Anyway, yup, thanks for your time and do look over the site and all and if you want to know more then let’s talk. This project was maybe the most rewarding thing I’ve done maybe in my whole life but it’s at least one of the more fulfilling and meaningful things I’ve done for sure. I can’t express how much I gained from having done it. I really think you’ll feel the same way when you finish doing it too.

Alright, see you around.

-Jason McHenry
www.anti-product.com
jasonwentcrazy on most social media 
[Some links to some old press and interviews are HERE to give you an idea of what you might be getting yourself into.]