The Reading Room
An Endless Supply: Countersituation
13 June–16 July 2011
The Reading Room is a new series of projects at International Project Space running alongside the main exhibitions programme. Departing from the traditional form of a gallery bookshop, The Reading Room presents both artist and curatorial projects which interrogate the notion of ‘publishing’ and ‘publicness’, investigating the ways in which knowledge is produced and made public today through experimental forms of writing and distribution.
‘Countersituation’ is the title of an ongoing series of weekly published pages, initiated by An Endless Supply with Adam Smythe. Each issue is a double-sided sheet of new writing and re-published texts, simultaneously printed and distributed in short-runs and available online as a PDF. It is a model of responsive, on-the-fly publishing with a visible production process.
The major intention of the project is to present writing and publishing as an embedded activity. Its rapid production is key and at times will form narrative arcs as texts are serialised, published in response or in dialogue. ‘Countersituation’ is designed as a public service, to be sustained, added to and improved. These points will direct the themes of the first five issues, to be published weekly throughout the exhibition.
A series of corresponding screenprints presented in the galley will rechannel the written texts as rebus puzzles, mnemonics and word games, as abstractions and entry points.
An Endless Supply is a design studio formed by Harry Blackett and Robin Kirkham. Since 2009 they have worked on slef-publishing, design and curating. Recent work has utilised slide projections, posters and video, broadly concerned with value systems, user generated content, misreading and the means of producing work. Projects include: ‘Again, a Time Machine (A Book Works touring exhibition in five parts)’, Eastside Projects, Birmingham; ‘Open Books’, Royal College of Art, London; ‘The Most Cool Books’, presented at PA/PER VIEW, Zabludowicz Collection, London (all 2011).
A limited number of printed versions of the weekly pages will be available from the gallery. You can also download PDF versions HERE
