I made 24 sculptures over a period of 24 hours in Birmingham, in collaboration with Werk/LPAP in October 2014. Residents of this working class community contributed materials for the art “production line” on the site of the Longbridge Factory which closed ten years ago putting thousands of people out of work. I was inspired by the heritage of the area, the working community and the production lines which ran for nearly a century.

The project raises questions about cultural production and labor, exposing both the similarities and the disconnects between the making of “art” vs. the making of other goods. It also plays with the concept of the “white cube” gallery scenario where art is a precious commodity consumed by the elite. In this case, we are in a project space, adjacent to a historical factory, the work is free and is produced openly, informed by “factory” processes, such as deadlines and mass production. Cultural production is depicted as an assembly line process. In summary: this is “task-oriented” performance art, about labor and art and the methods and systems of quantity-production.