Accidental Audience: Urban Interventions by Artists
1999
Accidental Audience examines urban intervention as an art practice. Intervention work is site-specific, eclectic in form, and generally involves an element of unpredictability—possibilities to be experienced through chance encounters. Surprise or serendipity is part of what constitutes the work. Often anonymous, the interventionists challenge the hierarchies of the art world while also contributing to the dilation of public spaces. Accidental Audience is also an extension of the dialogue around interventionist practices that was stimulated by a city-wide urban intervention project, "off\site@toronto," which took place in Toronto in the fall of 1998. "off\site@toronto" was a month-long event involving the work of sixteen artists and artist groups. Although diverse in character, the works shared the impulse to exist or circulate outside of the conventional gallery site. The participants in "off\site@toronto" are a part of a growing number of artists, both national and international, who work in and with the streets, lots, sidewalks, restrooms, and airwaves of our shared urban environments—and included Adrian Blackwell, Michael Buckland, Corrine Carlson, Matt Grainer, Tyree Guyton, Luis Jacob, Tilman Küntzel, John Marriott, Ben Smith Lea, Sally McKay, Janet Murray, Daniel Olson, Lucy Pullen, Steve Reinke, Rocky, Christy Thompson, and Toxi-city. "off\site@toronto" provided a physical context within which to ponder these art practices. Accidental Audience continues to explore this terrain by questioning the politics, sociology, and reception of the interventionist strategies.
Identifier
L0086Call Number
N6545.A24 1999Extent
80 pages : illustrations ; softcover 21 cmLanguage
ISBN
0968586503Place of Publication
Toronto, ONPublication Type
PrintEditor
Kym PruessePublisher
off\site collectiveCollection
grunt gallery LibraryCopyright 1999 the authors for their texts, the artists for their works, the editor and the off\site collective for the publication.