Accumulation Project: Selections

From September 1, 2005 to September 1, 2006, 18 selected artists from around the country committed to the challenge of acquiring or producing "accumulates" for the purpose of creating work for exhibition. The accumulation period lasted from September 1, 2005 to September 1, 2006. Chosen accumulates ranged from tangible objects such as unwanted plastic bags and discarded chewing gum to ephemera such as opinions and wishes. Documentation of each contributor's process and progress was updated monthly on the Accumulation Project website, www.accumulationproject.org.

 

The project was originally conceived of by members of Other Leading Brand collective as an exploration of the roles that time and quantity play in creative practice and as an experiment in approaching art production as problem solving. "We were curious about how people would transform their attraction to something into an ordered system or practice, and how their connection or understanding of their subject might change as a result", says show co-organizer Sam Imperatrice. Co-organizer Eric Brown adds, "We were also curious about who would be interested in participating in and sticking with a project like this. What sort of personalities would be attracted to this?" While many contributors entered the project with clear ideas as to how to organize and ultimately exhibit their final collection of accumulates, several participants figured things out along the way--their questioning, inspiration and often their frustrations made public on the project's website.

 

In addition to the monthly web documentation, the project's structure called for two gallery exhibitions. The first after 3 months of accumulation, which was held in December 2005 at Lunarbase Gallery in Williamsburg, and a final exhibition displaying a full year's worth of accumulation held at Art House Productions in Jersey City, October 2007.