Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

The Cult of David Shrigley...

14:02 / 07.12.03

Two things really. Firstly I'd like to draw people's attention in the direction of David Shrigley's work, which has this nice hint of discordia within it as well as being evidently cheaply created and mostly conceptual (he's got a big exhibition on the underground at the moment as well, the site for which being where all the following images are housed).

The second thought I had was how easy it would be to replicate these tiny art projects on a mass scale - hence the title of the thread 'the cult of david shrigley'. The thought being that a group of people could simply produce the same signs and tokens and leaves them around London as and where they wanted - massively oversaturating the capital with cancerous art. Thoughts?

14:18 / 07.12.03

That would be funny.. not to say interesting, maybe even more interesting than funny really.. anyways, it would certainly highten the degree of urban discordianism, and maybe make people think weird thoughts. And thats good.

Tryphena Absent

10:06 / 08.12.03

I think that's a lovely thought. I really like the idea of getting rid of past diaries full of 16 year old angst by leaving them on the street or on a bench with those words written across the front in tip-ex.

10:12 / 08.12.03

Related incident which may or may not be relevant: When I was at college in Nottingham someone posted little flyers all around the city which said 'LOOK UP.' If you looked up, they were always underneath something really interesting - a lovely gargoyle, or a roofscape, or just coloured washing hanging out of a window or something.

Which I thought was really cool.

11:33 / 09.12.03

Yes, I liked the idea of ditching old diaries like that too, although I'd still feel kind of uneasy about reading the contents (much as I'd want to), even if I did find one like that. Similarly, the idea that another human being could know what my 14-year old angst sounded like makes me shudder...

The "Lost : Pigeon" sign is brilliant, too, especially "A bit mangy-looking".

03:26 / 11.12.03

Ah... Art projects.

A couple of years ago, I laid hands on a number of small black plastic boxes, and filled them up with sort of "altar-in-a-box" type things. Weird shapes drawn in the bottom of the box, stubs of tiny candles, fortunes from fortune-cookies, the occasional wishbone done over in metallic gold marker.... I left them on the bus, at automatic tellers, various random places. Lots of fun.

I think it's time for a couple of new projects - anybody got any play money from unused Monopoly games that they want to send to me? (The backs are a great place to print interesting thoughts about money, value, and desire!)

Tryphena Absent

09:49 / 11.12.03

See you can't leave random boxes on the bus in London unless you want to stop part of the city. Someone like me will panic and alert the driver. While that could make a great art project there's already enough delay getting home after work... mind you, how cool would it be to leave kitsch little altars to Hecate all over the place!

08:35 / 12.12.03

I would so love to be part of a project like this, I think Tom is right and we should start The Cult of David Shrigley. The more I think about it, the more excited I am about it.

We'd need a website (and gosh! Look at that - thecultofdavidshrigley.com seems to be available) where we could introduce people to the project, and people could post up pictures of things they had done there. We'd somehow need to tell new people about what we were doing, but I guess we could put the website address on the things we did, maybe.

Also, if we had a website we could write something about why we were doing it and could invite people to get involved, and people who saw the things we were doing might feel inspired to join in if they knew where to look to get information.

Tryphena is right, you couldn't go leaving random boxes around but if they were open so people could see they weren't anything scary, that would be ok. The signs are probably much easier to do and I am sure we could all think of good ones.

It would be even cooler if people from outside London could join in; maybe anyone who wanted could make something and then suggest where it could go. And if they then posted it to London based Cult members, the London based people could actually do the 'putting up' of things.

Oh, lets do it. Come on.

Tryphena Absent

09:00 / 12.12.03

Why limit such a project to London? I think this could be a lot of fun but that we should push it further afield so it happens everywhere and anywhere and have some kind of mark on all of the objects to show where they've come from?

The URL seems a little bit too long as well- cultofshrigley.com might be a better idea.

How about coke cans with 'this is not a (the) bomb' written across the front and left on tube trains or is my inner anti-globalisationist coming out? Has it been done before?

09:48 / 12.12.03

Yes, I think cultofshrigley.com is much better.

Tom's original idea was to exactly replicate David Shrigley's work, and the 'Ignore this building' sign springs to mind as an easy option to start with, there being many wonderful buildings in London and indeed elsewhere.

But making our own works 'in the style of' is more challenging and inspiring too. Having said that, making our own diverts Tom's original suggestion into something else (possibly more political). Perhaps we could do both?

The non-bomb coke can idea is excellent Tryphena, and personally I prefer the to a. I don't think it has been done before and anyway, I don't think it matters even if it has.

I have to visit London this afternoon, so I shall be taking my digital camera and some large pieces of card...

19:35 / 07.02.04

I don't understand why this project should be London based, until he became fashionable didn't Shrigley place most of his work around Galsgow anyway?

As for ideas...
I'm sure it's been done before, that I'm recollecting it under the guise of a fresh Shrigley inspired concept, but if I ever get into gear on this I imagine myself leaving everyday objects in public places, a note attached to them roughly marking the period during which I owned it or perhaps rather more accurately used it. 'My comb - 1999-2003', that kind of thing.