A Year Of Time

‘A Year Of Time 1:30’ is the result of a year as ‘Artist in Residence’ at 53 Ridge Street North Sydney. For the last nine years, part of Bridget Kennedy’s art practice has been placed within the gallery or public arena. ‘Gallery as Practice’ has provided an opportunity to observe participation and exchange between jewellery and objects, and the community. The experience of how people interact with the jewellery-object, the values placed on the works and the choices made, has increased a curiosity in exploring these ideas further.

This installation of small handheld woven basket-like objects was made over the calendar year of 2017; sometimes during shared public ‘craft and coffee’ events held at the gallery but also in private. ‘A Year Of Time 1:30’ is a physical manifestation of the observation of the passing of one calendar year, highlighting the labour of the handmade. A log of the minutes taken to stitch each object was kept, and a small silver disc with these details was stamped and attached to each object, every minute representing 30 minutes of time in a calendar year. Created from natural fibres and recycled plastic bags, primarily sourced from her home environment, the work is process driven, with each object evolving in relation to the previous one.

The installation explores notions of value and exchange and invites the viewer to ‘purchase’ an individual object by exchanging either the equivalent amount of time or in monetary currency, the number of minutes that the buyer considers that time is worth. The work was exhibited at Bridget Kennedy Project Space, December 2017.

A_year_of_time_roomsheet with RRP HH:MM

Throughout 2018, the individual objects were then ‘purchased’ through negotiated exchanges and time shared. Any cash that was received was then woven into a ‘currency basket’.  The resulting exhibition ‘rethinking value: the essence of time, exhibited at Bridget Kennedy Project Space in December, 2018, showcased the goods and services that were offered in exchange for the forms and the interactions that occurred around these exchanges.  The total hard currency received, $670 AUD was woven into a ‘currency basket’.
Rethinking value: the essence of time roomsheet

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THE EXCHANGES – click on each image for more details