This collaboration with Aleksandra was one of the best experiences I had in the art world so far, most definitely as an artist assistant. This is because it wasn't so much assisting, but actually being part of the work itself. 

I found the poetics of the practice to be extremely beautiful: in between a very rigid grid (a metaphor for the technology and machinery that engulf our daily lives) different people had to draw patterns to let a pre-arranged image to surface. These images are of satellites and they were either extremely small, laborious and repetitive to complete, or they were part of a large-scale 7-part mural, which mosaic had to be completed with a different mark. The result was surprisingly varied, dynamic and visually interesting. There is a inherent thrust between the organic and the mechanical. 

I will never see the Sharpie again with the same eyes: we used, abuse, rinsed, dissected (literally cut them wide open) and mutilated these pens to create the various effects. On the bottom left picture, you can see me following the grid with a jumbo pen, which I have cut into three irregular tips to create a brushy stamp effect. This was one of the pieces I enjoyed the most because of its subversive, challenging (it was hard to keep within the grid) and painterly effect. It was liberating to use such a simple tool in ways I never imagined before, not to speak of the beauty the tapestry effect of the drawings achieved. 

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I thoroughly enjoyed working with Aleksandra, and she gave us the opportunity to meet Stephanie Straine, curator of Oxford Modern and Tamar Hemes from Tate Liverpool. We got to understand the work they do and how do they organise themselves at institutional level, their relationships with artists and how they are in the middle of the art and bureaucracy. You can read the press release here.