PARADISE READY-MADE revisited

Gallery 5533

Satellite project of the 12th Istanbul Biennial

Istanbul, Turkey

September 2011
Desk, potted flowering plants, and instructional poster

Paradise Readymade Revisited is both a sculpture and a participatory artwork that becomes a field, spreading out across the city of Istanbul like a landscape. It moves away from the object crafted by the artist and becomes whole only through the desire of the participants.

Participants are invited to take a flowering plant from the desk at Gallery 5533. They are asked to relocate the plant within the public realm of the city of Istanbul. They are asked to consider how they can make a contribution to the urban environment by depositing their gifted plant as if leaving behind a personal memento. In return I ask the participants to share documentation of where it is they take their plant. Where might they deposit it; the heavily trafficked Taksim square, a sheltered bus stop along the Halic, a tea garden with a view of the Bosporus, or perhaps they will regift the plant passing it on to yet another.