Privation

Through a contractually defined agreement signed by the artist, collector and gallerist, the artist is permitted 20 minutes of unsupervised, unsurveilled, and alone time in the collector’s home. The contract states that, during this time, the artist will remove a single item from the collector’s home. The identity of this extracted object is to remain a secret, concealed from both the collector and public knowledge. The extracted object – one that is banal, and therefore unplaceable –, introduces an undetermined absence into the collector’s domestic space. The collector of this work will acquire an unspecifiable lack as an artwork within their collection.

Joshua Schwebel holds an MFA from NSCAD University, Canada, and his work has been exhibited at Centre Clarke, Montreal; the Kreuzberg Pavillion, Berlin; Or Gallery, Vancouver; Fonderie Darling, Quebec; Standarts, Milan; Museum Reinickendorf, Berlin; among others. In 2020-21, he participated in the BPA (Berlin Program For Artists) and he was shortlisted for the Berlin Art Prize in 2019.

Joshua Schwebel’s work revolves around the systemic problems of the art world, its institutions and power imbalances. Schwebel’s work takes the form of tactical interventions in response to the institutions in which he is hosted, using refusals and absences as tools for making structural limits visible. He engages with the various structures that constitute the encounter with art (administrative, architectural, financial, bureaucratic, etc.), instituting situations for uncertainty, doubt, and self-reflection on the institutional border of art. This is one of his first commercial gallery interventions.

Installation views: Theo Christelis