(above left: Installation view in Platform, Finland / above right: edition of the 18,000 word email conversation to design the work)

Collaborative study on Partially-sighted Philanthropy (Working Model) 2008
(with Sebastian Craig / i-cabin, London )
Long-distance imagined map of Vaasa, adapted woodcrafts, receipt, edition of compiled emails on chair.


Just prior to leaving for my residency in Finland I approached Sebastian Craig of i-cabin gallery to collaborate on a long distance project whilst I was out there. Based on questions we both had about our respective practices we decided to undertake a research project into usefulness, value and benevelance. After two brief meetings at our respective studios the rest of the negotiations took place online, in emails, text messages and chat rooms, these conversations have been collected together in an 18,000 word publication*.

After finding the local prison just off the centre of town and visiting the attached shop that was part of a scheme to sell handicrafts made by the inmates, we employed it as a suitable site for our activity. The shop being the public face of this obscured institution and an open invitation to enter and interact.


(above left: receipt from Vaasa Prison shop / above right: Close-up of adapted prison woodcrafts)

We decided to spend exactly €100 of Platform's production budget in the Vaasa prison shop and adapt the purchases in some way, creating an economic link between two local institutions and providing a physical manifestation of our inquiry.

We wanted these adaptations to contain a symbolic reference to our interaction with the city as a whole. Not long after my arrival Sebastain began producing a map of Vaasa based only on my off-hand comments about local attractions and daily life. The isometric perspective he used to generate the various buildings gave us the strategy of the 60° angle to analyse shape and situation. Therefore the 60° cuts seemed a fitting way to methodically adjust each piece and provoke reactions about approriate behaviour, value and ownership.

This stage of the inquiry was about the consequences of our actions. What did it mean to spend this ammount of money in this way? Would it encourage or perpetuate this form of rehabilitation? How do we perceive these functional objects and is their value linked to their uses or their provenance? Also, when is this type of making either altering, activating or damaging?

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(Above left: Sebastian's imagined map of Vaasa / Above left: Detail of map featuring prison, church, my studio and coastline)


*See a copy of the book HERE, read the full text on i-cabin's website HERE or contact us for a limited edition signed hard copy.