A L E X G A W R O N S K I

Order Board

Alex Gawronski, Order Board, 2024

(Felt pin board, plastic letters, enamel. 1120 x 1800 x 20 mm)

‘Stupid As’, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (Naarm), VIC

curated by Alex Gawronski

https://gertrude.org.au/exhibition/stupid-as-curated-by-alex-gawronski

These days it would be easy to assume we live in era of endless abundance. Consider for instance, what is on offer in most metropolitan pubs, endless alcoholic variation, craft beers, spirits and more. When we enter into a simple exchange in an ostensibly social environment like a pub, we also implicitly agree with the social contract of capitalism: I ask the shopkeeper for what I want, they supply it, and I pay. Transactions occur, or are expected to occur, in a spirt of mutual politeness. The employee in particular is bound by certain expectations by the mere fact of being employed. A simple economic exchange is therefore invisibly underlined by hierarchies that determine its smooth functioning.

Order Board considered the underlying tension of a system sustained by the unfreedom of having to regulate behaviour in ways that might not align with our true feelings or political convictions.  What would happen if we could order an insult instead of a beer? What if we could order an insult in the spirit of polite commercial transaction to be used later, on our own terms and for our own purposes? How much is an insult worth? Because of what it sells, a pub perhaps provides the best metaphor for that which separates self-control from chaos, politeness from offense. There is formal tension between alphabetical regimentation and the potential for visceral offense these words might elicit if used freely in the ‘real world’.

.

.

.

.