Reflections on loss, death, recycling and appropriation in a public hybrid site for exhibition, production, education and research.
Tracy & Edwin’s Object Becomes Subject was a temporary public hybrid site for exhibition, production, education and research that facilitated the integration of research, making and teaching activities. It took place in 2011, in the University of Dundee’s Visual Research Centre, situated in Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland. Direct engagement with a range of publics including student groups took place through structured conversations and participation in public discursive events.
From day to day the cardboard display case Over the Rainbow was made and curated in a live situation, adding to the presentation of two display cases, Life is Short, Art Long and Forces of Attraction and Repulsion that had previously been shown as part of the exhibition Loss Becomes Object at the Highland Institute of Contemporary Art (2011). In each case a series of artefacts collected in the Highland Hospice charity shops were juxtaposed with associative material, resulting in a series of still-life groupings that provoked reflections on issues of loss, death, recycling and appropriation.
A woollen ‘text blanket’ was worked on daily, often during conversation with visitors that centred on the themes of loss, grieving and renewal. No Neutral Representations is a silent still-image slide projection, a linear series of notebook pages presented with associated postcards. The notebook was developed as a conversation piece between the Tracy & Edwin as a way of exploring the central ideas and considerations in The Museum of Loss and Renewal.
In the first of two seminars, Dr David Reilly (doctor, educator and researcher) focused on the relationship between art practice, creative change and human healing. The second seminar was lead by Dr Paul O’Neill (curator, artist and writer) and Prof Arnd Schneider (social anthropologist) and explored notions of duration and context specificity in relation to The Museum of Loss and Renewal.
The publication Loss Becomes Object Becomes Subject was launched in 2013.