Is making a sandwich art? What about stacking furniture? Our writer gets through quarantine by obeying the commands of `instructional artists´ from Yoko Ono to her modern-day successorsLast year, back when talking to people in real life was a thing, Fernanda Gomes showed me round her solo exhibition in São Paulo, Brazil. In one corner, stacked on the floor, was a pile of coins, a typically minimalist gesture by the artist. `This work is a gift to the public,` she said, `who are free to replicate it at home.´´ Back in London, I took up her invitation and recreated the sculpture, using several Brazilian coins. Stacking the money, I´m pleased to say, used up a bit of quarantine time.A lot of art involving everyday objects can, by definition, be copied, and some artists actively encourage us to remake their work. In 1919, unable to attend his sister´s wedding in the immediate aftermath of the first world war, Marcel Duchamp sent from Buenos Aires instructions for an artwork by way of a present. Suzanne Duchamp was to source a geometry textbook and suspend it by strings from her balcony overlooking Rue la Condamine in Paris. `The wind had to go through the book, choose its own problems, turn and tear the pages.` Continue reading...
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