Kork Project

May-June Press Release:

Artist Mark Creegan has insinuated himself into the social and practical workings of the office of Bailey Browne CPA & Associates in Poughkeepsie, NY by remotely requesting the staff to photocopy specific items in the office.
Via email, Creegan is engaging in a collaborative repartee with with members of the office staff
which mimics the order of directive and interpretive execution inherent in business offices and certain artistic practices alike. The results of these exchanges are shaped by conditions in the office and the potentially varied reading of written instructions as those written communications are translated into execution-able, and in this case visual, effects.

Given that the office of today is rich in fullcolor-producing technology, Creegan cuts to the core of office functionality (production and dissemination) by recruiting the stalwarts of office accouterments, the photocopier, to create the artifacts of this interaction, and the bulletin board to broadcast them. The grainy, grey-scale quality of the images belie the bells and whistles afforded to personnel in the modern office. To shamelessly lift a section of Benjamin's Art in the Age of mechanical reproduction:

By close-ups of the things around us, by focusing on hidden details of familiar objects, by exploring common place milieus under the ingenious guidance of the camera, the film, on the one hand, extends our comprehension of the necessities which rule our lives; on the other hand, it manages to assure us of an immense and unexpected field of action.

Here, the camera is replaced by the photocopier and the film with the with moments created by the concept behind the kork project space as a device to frame and re-frame the otherwise expected experience of the office environment into an instance of art-making.
Mark's conversation began on May 4, 2009 and will conclude on June 26, 2009, ending a project that will allow business as usual..

There is a statistic circulating on the web that 23% of all photocopier "faults" stem from individuals sitting on them and photocopying their nether regions. We at kork know not if this stat is true. What we can surmise to be true that inappropriate use of the photocopiers in a business setting has existed since the technology has been available for commercial use. Indeed, the presence of a photocopier and a stamped enveloped (subsequently replaced by the fax machine) undoubtedly constituted the instruments necessary for that now is known as sexting. Interesting that the most certain of prophylactics possible enlists reproduction to preclude any unwanted reproduction...but that's fodder for a wholly different project. Although we at kork have no idea how far Creegan's kork board investigation will take him nor how invasive his requests will become, we are certain that Creegan's project could well be adapted as a revolutionary program for harnessing the American work force's creative impulse which if otherwise is laying dormant, is bound to reveal itself in ill advised moments of irreverence at office holiday parties.

Only time will tell. In the meantime, the fruits of this particular labor which began on May 4, 2009 and will conclude on June 26, 2009 are on view in a slide show which is updated weekly at korkd.blogspot.com.

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