CANVAS is an exploration, a challenge, an experiment.
Taking inspiration from the Situationists, Fluxus and psychogeography, the installation turns the participant’s gaze upon the environment outside: why are our cities primarily constructed around commercial functions and ideals? What potential does the built environment contain for art, creativity and play? Aside from the functionality of buildings and the activity they house, what underlying effects do they have on us?
CANVAS challenges the preconception that artists create art whilst audiences consume it. Can a creative action exist as art of its own accord, without an audience? What is the place of art in our public spaces, and in society?
CANVAS is an invitation to examine our cities, to play and observe, to seek out, reclaim and repurpose our public spaces, at your own pace; to carry out activities for the sheer joy of them, to create your own movement through a city that frequently coerces you to move in an entirely different and alienating way – travelling to work, shopping, travelling home, sleeping. Canvas is a call to acquire a more embodied experience, the intuitive kind, the alive kind,; to acknowledge potentials and use creative tactics to combat social corrosion. As Debord said – boredom is a form of political oppression.
