Public Interactions
Berlin Germany 2007
The Gropiusstadt Modern Project, Germany
In June 2007 I was invited to attend the, International Artists in Residence Project “Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt” in Berlin Germany
For this residency I lived in an apartment block named Gropiusstadt which is home to approximately 37 000 inhabitants. This is a lack-luster almost “ghetto” complex that 99% of tourists to Berlin never see.
The works done by the artists at the residency try to intervene in or interfere with normal daily life in Gropiusstadt, they can be kinds of actions which involve the inhabitants or just small interventions in the environment.
My project targeted the tourist consumer culture that propagates the “been there, done that” attitude of visiting memorable places. Through the Gropiusstadt Moden Project I addressed specific living conditions in Berlin and the economic industry of tourist culture. This project consisted of snapshot images of myself wearing souvenir t-shirts that I designed and photographs taken by strangers.
*ACTION: As I explored Berlin I invited random people to take my picture. Through this process the documentation became arbitrary and frequently the images are too small or flawed. I found that by giving away the control of photo documentation my role as the performer/artist became dependent on the actions of strangers. This created a unique performative collaboration as well as unexpected tensions throughout this project.
*before smartphones and selfie culture existed
Berlin Germany 2007
Schalter Gallery
Handie An interactive photo installation
Lottumstr.1 – 10119 Berlin
July 14 – August 11
This installation was part of a documentation from an ongoing public engagement between 2006 to 2008. Using images of a cell phone printed on photo paper, I invited local residents to be part of this installation by writing their name and phone number on a photograph of their choice, which they knew was to be used in an upcoming art exhibition.
There were two copies of each photo, one image I kept and the other was for the participant to keep.
I taped the series of snap shots on the gallery wall, beside a pre-paid cell phone and a fresh sharpie marker.
Without instruction, viewers at the gallery were free to decide how they wanted to engage with the artwork.
This installation invited gallery viewers to play with the seductive tension between public and private spaces from within the safety of the gallery walls.
Evolutions of this project have been exhibited at
Rotary Blue
Atelier Circulaire
Montreal QC Canada 2006
FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES ONLY
La Centrale Galerie
Montreal QC Canada, 2007
Weimar Germany 2006
Tourist Cards A Public Intervention
Weimar, Germany
Project
The Tourist Cards express my view of living in Germany’s “Culture Capital” where the proximity to past events continue to directly affect the relationship of the residents to their public space. Each Tourist Card presents images of familiar Weimar buildings with the windows digitally removed. My intention was to create a symbolic expression the subtle undertones of what I felt, living in Weimar.
Background
Weimar actively invites tourists to join the worship of classic German culture through monuments celebrating Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche, Gropius and Liszt who were all at various times associated with Weimar. During 1999 Weimar was awarded the title of “Cultural Capital of Germany” and received funding for numerous architectural restorations celebrating its past association with these renowned cultural figures. However, there is also a somber feeling of distance from other aspects of Weimar’s cultural history that I encountered during my stay in Weimar. The remnants of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp are visible from any elevation within Weimar; architectural alterations that occurred during the Nazi era still echo through the physical environment; and the social dislocations arising from 1989’s reunification of East and West Germany are still evident. One can feel the weight of these past events after spending an amount of time looking around Weimar, but I felt that sensitive issues like these are not publicly addressed.
Action
I surreptitiously placed the cards in tourist shop postcard stands through Germany. At each shop I innocently went to the counter to purchase one of my own postcards. From each transaction I obtained;
1. The Tourist Card as purchased from the rack
2. A paper shopping bag or wrapper to keep the card clean
3. A receipt as proof of purchase
4. Photo documentation of the transaction
Documentation of this project was exhibited in Montreal at
Skol Gallary August 2006
Montreal Canada 2008
NICE: nice is the new fuck you
August 17, 2008 @ The Back Gallery
Montreal Quebec Canada
~Review by Mike Rattray
Tegan Forbes does not want you to be nice, and she doesn’t want you to call her nice either. What she wants is for you to engage the spaces of your existence, to recognize your place, and to act in the face of oppression. Regardless of what that oppression may be, and regardless of what the means to the end encompass, she’s just asking for some participation.
Forbes’ exhibition consisted of a performance-based work where 100 red balloons were painted with a black stencil of the word “nice” over about an hour. At the back of the gallery sat, on a podium, a bottle of Jaggermeister on ice with a few shot glasses. The drink was free to anyone who wished to pass a gas-masked Forbes who was busy spraying toxic aerosol paint onto the balloons while a few photographers documented from outside the door. This required the spectator to put themselves at a little bit of risk and added an enticement to participate in the, dare I say, relational-aesthetic of the exhibition.
The use of a pollutant brought an element of irony into the performance. As we all participate daily in a city where pollutants keep the economy moving while persecuting smokers from our idling cars and generally ignoring the ubiquity of the fossil-fuel burning extravaganza, the idea of a threat or tension in the gallery space could manifest itself into recognizing what’s occurring beyond in the daily. The public space is not far from the gallery space; they are perhaps one in the same under certain circumstances.
The exhibition stemmed from Forbes experiences in the former GDR, a place she has frequented in the past few years. An interest in communist red, uncovering and understanding how much of an effect the past has had on the contemporary and how former oppressive slogans can be turned to capital all inform the work. Although the questions come from experiences abroad, they are issues that are relatable to our home here in Canada. How do we deal with an oppressive and turbulent past of colonial rule? Can we acknowledge our past without being bound to it? Are we reducible to those rules defined by an elite post-national committee of the rich? Or, can we, through the reclamation of public and private spaces, the subversion of dominant codes and signs, the recognition of historiography as a concept of control to perpetuate difference, enact change through a creative act which has been bagged and tagged as Art?
Nice is the new fuck you.
~Review by Mike Rattray
Photos by kg Guttman and Larissa Holmes
Ottawa Canada 2006
National Gallery of Canada
I would like to acknowledge and thank the National Gallery of Canada for displaying and selling my art in their gift shop (unknowingly)
“Where did you get this?” she asked
I replied and I offered 50 cents, “from the post card stand over there”
She said that she didn’t recognize the image and concluded that it must be new work in the gallery.
I was charged 30 cents