NO RUSE
Type
Exhibition, Other, Publication
Category
Conceptual, Design, Digital, Drawing, Installation...
Status
Archived
Deadline
December 16, 2014
Application Fee
Not Available
Host
NO RUSE
Location
Boston, MA, United States

Hello artists and other creative friends. We are inviting you to participate in a very unusual exhibit, with a very unusual format, at a very unusual venue.


Here is how to get involved:

1) Stop and take stock for a moment of the objects in your life. Are there many? Are there few? How connected do you feel to them?


2) Think your way through the categories of your belongings until you arrive at the category of things that you own and plan to do something with, but haven't done anything with yet. (If you are an artist, you likely have many things in this category, but most people have at least one thing like this. Like a rubber band or something.)


3) Within this subcategory, identify one item that meets all of the following criteria:

-You have planned to do something with it, but have not done anything with it, and have held on to it for over a year
-It is smaller than a soccer ball
-It is made of non-toxic material (please ask if you are unsure what qualifies)
-It is not explosive
-You are willing to give it away (ideally in person, at an event in the city of Boston in January of 2015)
 
4) Locate your object in time and space, and then spend some time with it closer to you than usual to be certain that this is the item that you want to submit for consideration. Once you are certain that you have chosen the right object, please create some kind of visual documentation for us of your object. It can take any form: a hand drawn sketch, a watercolor, a photograph, a digital rendering, a video still, a sculpture, a chunk of text... all that we ask is that you be able to present this documentation to us as a single-page PDF, and that if your object is accepted into NO RUSE, you be able to provide a high resolution version of the same image (300 dpi, exact dimensions TBD) for the exhibition's catalog. Actually, we also ask that you consider the documentation project as the thing you are doing with your object instead of what you originally intended to do with it. This documentation may be your object's last hurrah before you let it go, back into the world at large, to a destiny that you have no control over. We suggest that you consider this in your documentation and try to find a way to capture all of your dreams and fantasies about the object in its portrait. Highlight its nuances and potential in whatever way that you can.

Application Instructions: Send a single-page PDF as described above to "noruseboston@gmail.com" by December 17, 2014 along with your contact info and a short description of the object that includes its dimensions. Any questions can also be referred to this email address.

NO RUSE is a show about not knowing whether something being held onto is a blessing or a burden, and about letting go of things before knowing which is the case. It tries to acknowledge the essence of something's potential importance without any commitment to it. A ruse is a clever trick—like the spell something casts on you when you make space for it in your life. But its origin is a French word referencing the unpredictable path taken by fleeing game—something eluding capture. The show title also plays phonic tribute to Naw Ruz, a Persian new year celebration that emphasizes letting go of the old and making way for the new...