OK YEAH COOL GREAT
KATE BECKINGHAM & SIDNEY MACMAHON
’THE DELIVERY’
30 JUNE – 1 AUGUST, 2016
The Delivery, 2016, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: In Verge Gallery there is white rope strung across the walls with bright pink t-shirts hanging off them on neon colours hangers. Behind the shirts, on the left there is a ladder that is propped up against a wall. Next it in is a television with two headphones sitting either side of the screen, and a neon pink and yellow printed bag suspended above it. Behind the shirts on the right, are three large black and white images of different textured patterns and objects close up.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
In a return to joy, OK YEAH COOL GREAT presented The Delivery. Limited edition art objects were explicitly offered for sale as the artists commented on the tension between value and economics and the potential for success and failure in the art world.
Exploring ideas delivered by Jan Verwoert in his talk at the ICA in April 2015 titled ‘Artists, what is your value?’ OK YEAH COOL GREAT used this exhibition to consider Verwoert’s description of ‘The Delivery’ as part of the value of the artist. The Delivery for Verwoert is about giving the audience what they want via seduction and generosity.
Furthermore, The Delivery explored the value of the artist’s time, labour and actions around making. By offering an exhibition with such explicit commercial and economic intent, OK YEAH COOL GREAT forced the audience to consider the financial realities of studio-based practices as well as questioning the nature of value and desire.
The Delivery, 2016, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: On the left, there is a pink t-shirt hung on a white rope with a gold chained black mini bag around the neck, with a netted bag hanging on the same rope in front if it. Next to it on the wall is a large black and white image with various materials of netting, hats and fabric close up. On the right there’s a clothing display rack that has three multi coloured bucket hats scattered across it, and a blue rope hanging in the middle of it.
In early 2016, OK YEAH COOL GREAT invited Amelia Bowe an Online Beauty and Lifestyle Writer and Social Content producer to write a response to a conversation we had with her in the development and planning stages of ‘The Delivery’.
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Having worked as a beauty writer, you witness and commentate on various beauty trends day in and day out.
After reading and writing upwards of one hundred articles on the contouring and “baking” makeup trends which the Kardashian family (heard of ‘em?) brought to the mainstream market, I learnt that these makeup techniques were originally used by drag queens and actors.
Who would’ve thought?
Not only did the Kardashian fam take these techniques from the stage to the standard done thing, various forms of contouring also began trending.
The Delivery, 2016, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: There is a television screen sitting in the middle of the wall with wires hanging from the bottom of the screen and headphones to the right of it. Dangling above is a pink netted bag with a yellow neon strap hanging on a white rope across the gallery. In the very forefront, a blurred pink t-shirt hangs in space.
As a result, necks, ears, feet and every body part in between have officially been contoured. Even bums.
But trends that rise often fall, and now we’re seeing its popularity fade with the introduction of “non-touring”.
That’s right, the new makeup technique where you don’t contour as such, you just highlight your face.
While the general population don't necessarily adopt these makeup trends, makeup enthusiasts spend a great amount of time online (much like art enthusiasts might spend a lot of time in galleries), and so it makes sense the trend was really driven by the internet where makeup artists reign.
Some people who may’ve considered interesting makeup techniques artistic in the past when they were rarer, may turn their noses up at contouring now that’s it’s more mainstream.
The Delivery, 2016, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: From the left of the room, there are two white ropes lining the top of the wall with pink t-shirts hanging from the ropes, on neon green coat hangers. Behind the shirts on the left, are two large black and white images of different textured patterns and objects close up. On the right there’s a black clothing display rack that has two multi coloured bucket hats scattered across it, and a different coloured necklaces hanging around them.
Even though it’s not really mainstream. The internet just makes it feel that way.
If we hung a portrait in a gallery of a fully contoured face, would people consider it art just because of the environment it’s in?
If they saw it all over the internet, would they see it differently?
Is makeup an art form if it becomes functional and absorbed into the everyday life? When I woke up this morning for instance, would I consider putting foundation, blush and lipstick on an artistic practice?
If everyone is doing it, does it no longer have artistic value?
If only a few people are contouring, do more people consider it an art form until it’s plastered all over the internet?
If it was still just the actors and drag queens contouring, would we think it was special?
I just don't know the answers.
Amelia Bowe, 2016
The Delivery, 2016, Installation shot. Photography by Document Photography.
ID: On the wall there is a projected video on the left, with the storefront of ‘Macy’s’ that has green ferns cover the most part of the bottom of the video. Next to the project there is a large black and white image that is of a close up of a knotted rope, with various textiles materials surrounding it in the photo.