S. A. G.
SINGLE ACTIVITY GROUP (S.A.G.)
Berdmonsey Square, Vitrine Gallery 2013
S.A.G is a collective of like-minded artists who make performances together on a specific premise. Each artist devises their own single, work-orientated activity to repeat alongside each other for one hour in a static position (seated or standing).
The cue for S.A.G comes from Lillian and Frank Gilbreth’s controversial ‘Time and Motion’ films from the 1910s that were designed to maximise factory production through workers performing a ‘single activity’, day in, day out.
S.A.G performances reference the economic/historical phenomenon of labour-exploitation filtered through an evergreen, aesthetically acclaimed artistic trope – of minimalist-conceptual performance art redolent of the 1950s -70s. Typically, the S.A.G’s work is low-paid and mind numbing. The duration of one hour suggests the pay-system of repetitive labour.
The ambition is to evoke, through artist’s performances, an image of a factory of operatives that doesn’t make any productive sense. To reflect the work theme, a S.A.G performance is un/paid by the hour.
‘I used to work in a factory, and I was really happy because I could daydream all day’. (Ian Curtis, Joy Division)
S.A.G. are
Jack Catling
Kate Mahony
Jordan McKenzie
Simon Raven
Holly Slingsby
Lili Spain
Daniella Valz Gen
Aaron Williamson
Berdmonsey Square, Vitrine Gallery 2013
S.A.G is a collective of like-minded artists who make performances together on a specific premise. Each artist devises their own single, work-orientated activity to repeat alongside each other for one hour in a static position (seated or standing).
The cue for S.A.G comes from Lillian and Frank Gilbreth’s controversial ‘Time and Motion’ films from the 1910s that were designed to maximise factory production through workers performing a ‘single activity’, day in, day out.
S.A.G performances reference the economic/historical phenomenon of labour-exploitation filtered through an evergreen, aesthetically acclaimed artistic trope – of minimalist-conceptual performance art redolent of the 1950s -70s. Typically, the S.A.G’s work is low-paid and mind numbing. The duration of one hour suggests the pay-system of repetitive labour.
The ambition is to evoke, through artist’s performances, an image of a factory of operatives that doesn’t make any productive sense. To reflect the work theme, a S.A.G performance is un/paid by the hour.
‘I used to work in a factory, and I was really happy because I could daydream all day’. (Ian Curtis, Joy Division)
S.A.G. are
Jack Catling
Kate Mahony
Jordan McKenzie
Simon Raven
Holly Slingsby
Lili Spain
Daniella Valz Gen
Aaron Williamson
Images courtesy of Vitrine Gallery
Video filmed and edited by Rachel Dowle