HÖFER CRATE

My project for the Power Plant's archive exhibition consists of two elements: a series of a thousand questions culled from the archives and presented individually on an LED screen, and a presentation of polaroids. These polaroids feel akin to continuity shots taken on film sets. They are heavily annotated by the crew who took them, and are used exclusively to aid in correctly installing or re-crating works, or for condition reports and insurance claims. They note any irregularity or damage to the pieces and even the crates they are shipped in. I chose seventy of them to mirror the existing timeline of posters and invitations in the archive exhibition.

I wanted to do a larger 'case study' and on my last day of research I discovered the best opportunity, in a bankers box from 2000. The exhibition shipment was heavily documented (about 75 images, with many of the works badly damaged) with work by Candida Höfer, whose practice often explores 'the sociology of the museum' by documenting artworks in situ. Her excellent 2009 book, for example, documented On Kawara date paintings as they exist in private homes.

I produced an eBook of 100 pages, and boxed it with a nine-panel accordion fold print. The book documents the nine envelopes from the archive (seven crates and two documenting replacement and repaired work).





Dave Dyment
HÖFER CRATE
Toronto, Canada: 2012
100 page eBook on disk, 9-panel accordion fold
Signed and numbered edition of 25