Events/Openings

Do collectors transform unwanted objects into treasure or do they simply unearth treasure that went unnoticed?
With this “Zu Gast bei BQ”-show Kane remixes elements from recent projects – “The Home for Orphan Dishes” and “The Stratford Hoard” – with a forum to experiment further with the shifting nature of value.

Craft pottery ubiquitous in the 1960's and 70's but disregarded by a generation and collected recently (and cheaply) from thrift stores and charity shops in the UK by Lynda Morris is displayed at a tipping point between high and low regard in the upward direction. The pots stand testimony to the ambitions of their various makers to produce an enduring and popular art form for all but for Kane (and perhaps many others) it took them spending years in the cultural wilderness for this earnest and radical ambition to shine through.

Jack Harrison, a football coach from North London, has a ludic relationship to collecting. His various collections include rolls of adhesive tape and playing cards found on the street (he is 10 short of collecting a full deck). Since long before Michael Jacksons untimely death – but since his fall from grace – Jack has bought every copy of the singers prophetic album “BAD” that he came across.

In the main space of the gallery a series of empty plinths stand as an offer to visitors to bring in and have displayed something from their lives which is unwanted. At the end of the exhibition a prize will be awarded for the most abject object.

Alan Kane lives and works in London and his varied practice has concerned itself with producing a fluid relationship between audience/artwork/artist by testing the boundaries of art and exhibition making to define areas of common ground between them. He has had numerous solo exhibitions and projects including “The Home for Orphan Dishes”, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2011), “Life Class: Today’s Nude”, a 5 episode TV series for Channel 4 (2009), “The Stratford Hoard” at Stratford Station for Art on the Underground (2008), “Folk Archive: contemporary popular art from the UK”, in collaboration with Jeremy Deller, which opened at The Barbican London and toured to various museums in the UK.