squareworks laboratory (SqW:Lab)
fellowship
november 2018 — march 2019
SqW:Lab, mumbai, india
sqw:lab brief | sqw:lab invitation notes | sqw:lab background
press release | initial reflection | final reflection
sqw:lab is a three month long fellowship based initially in mumbai then activated all around the world, for cultural practitioners from any discipline. the first ten creative’s, from all of the world, will come together to work site responsively, showcase their process in the form of drawings, doodles and notes and get other fellows to mimic and play with these processes, and be inspired by each other and find innovative legacy projects and conversations.
inspired in part by hans ulrich obrist’s do it, a series/archive of instructions for artists to ‘do’ with a set of ‘rules’ that travelled the world, ever expanding as new contributors got involved, the sqw:lab will work in a similar way, producing instructions or games that will change depending on the players and the space it is being performed.
this ‘play’ period will be bookended with exhibitions at squareworks gallery space in mumbai. the first exhibition will look at the drawings of processes of each of the fellows and find connections and links between the fellows. the final show will be an exhibition of the products and artworks made over the 3-month fellowship programme. there will be additional exhibition opportunities throughout the fellowship, which will de developed in the first week of the fellowship.
this fellowship is about conversation and interaction, trace and feedback, and looking at (domestic) space, and how people can impact/influence a creative practice.
2 0 1 9
fellowship closing group exhibition
march 2019
serial repetition, by john ros, 2019
play project: repetition, by tash kahn
two squares, by john ros, 2019
play project: visual mindscapes (a very still life), by rosie van mierlo
group project
tale tellers, by john ros, 2019
the creative process, by james baldwin, creative america 1962
play project: tale tellers, by charlie levine
group project
01 Katsushika Hokusai
The Great Wave off Kanagawa, c 1829
33 color wood block
01. perhaps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone.
02 Franz Xaver Messerschmidt
Character Studies Heads, 1770-1781
02. the states of birth, suffering, love and death, are extreme states: extreme, universal, and inescapable.
03 Public Domain
Vietnam War, 1968 by USIA
03. and a higher level of consciousness among the people is the only hope we have, nor or in the future, of minimizing the human damage.
04 The set for Mulders office X-Files
20th Century Fox, 1993
04. the artist cannot and must not take anything for granted, but must drive to the heart of every answer and expose the question the answer hides.
05 Lascaux Caves near Montignac France
05. i am really trying to make clear the nature of the artist’s responsibility to his society.
06 Family fleeing tear gas at US-Mexican boarder in Tijuana
Kim Kyung Hoon, Reuters, 2018
06. that nation is healthiest which has the least necessity to distrust or ostracize or victimize these people — whom, as i say, we honor, once they are gone, because, somewhere in our hearts, we know we cannot live without them.
07 Francisco Goya
The Third of May, 1808-1814
Oil on canvas
07. societies never know it, but the war of an artist with his society is a lover’s war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do, which is to reveal the beloved to himself, and with that revelation, make freedom real.
2 0 1 8
eating bread and honey – open studio/group exhibition
november 2018
