Lot of Things Have Happened was a rare chance for Vancouver to see work from the UK by artists who use a variety of media to explore process. Using chance, structure, or system, many of these works employ a variety of strategies to disrupt intuition and interrupt the measured performance of art-making.

Maurice Carlin, Arnaud Desjardin, Marcia Farquhar, Jem Finer, Richard Galpin, Denise Hawrysio, Dan Hays, Tim Head, Sam Hodge, Petri Huurinainen, Joanne Love, Liselotte Boegh Mathiasen, Michael Petry, Emily Richardson, Bronwen Sleigh, John Wynne

Common Wealth investigates the relationship between word and image as expressed by five artists from the United Kingdom. This is a unique opportunity to see exciting new work from abroad ranging from the humorous to the ironic, from the poetic to the absurd, and from the light-hearted to the dark.

Participating artists include: Amanda Beech, Giorgio Sadotti, Bob and Roberta Smith, David Alker, and Denise Hawrysio.

A form of social experiment emerging from the traditions of Dada and Situationism, 15/1 is an experimental collaborative installation which Hawrysio devised in 1992 and has curated and participated in 3 times to date. In each case, the results can be read as the signature of a particular collective cultural moment – London (1992 and 2004) and Copenhagen (2005). Questioning the role of both artist and curator, “15/1 conveys a sense of infinite possibility – there is none of the sense of closure associated with conventional exhibitions.”
(Emma Dexter, 100 Reviews Backwards, Alberta Press 2004)

Participating artists:
Denise Hawrysio, Mette Kit Jensen, Jesper Fabricius, Mette Winckelmann, Frans Jacobi, Anja Franke, Dorte Buchwald, Al Masson, Nanna Gro Henningsen, Kristofer Hultenberg, Parfyme, Soren Bencke, Morten Sorenson, Nikolaj Recke, Claus Carstensen.

The main premise of this installation is that fifteen artists are each given two days to work in and respond to the existing conditions within the gallery space, free to alter and change or respond to anything done by the preceding artists. The only ‘rule’ is that the work of other artists cannot be removed from the gallery. Specific artwork is not curated; artists are instead asked to participate in a month-long process at the end of which the installation is opened to the public.

Participating artists:
Alex Schady, DJ Simpson, Denise Hawrysio Lynn Harris and Sam Ely, Nike Savvas, Fergal Stapleton James Porter, Peter Suckin, Valentin Bontjes Van Beek Mark Harris, Jeremy Deadman, Richard Wentworth, Roxie Welsh

The original 15/1, in 1992, was in a project space called the Malania Basarab Gallery, in my South London council flat. Although, spread out over three rooms, this installation had a clear sense of resolution; although it was easy to identify the contributions of individual artists by their characteristic styles, the overall result was a sense of collective development. It was described by Sarah Kent in Time Out as ‘a delightful piece of creative interweaving’.

Participating artists:
Denise Hawrysio, Sean Dower, Clare Tindall, Peter Lloyd Lewis, Pauline Daly, brendan Quick, Andreas Ginkel, Amikam Toren, Graham Ramsey, Richard Mikin, Adam Chodzko, Anya Gallaccio, Wendy Elliot, David Griffiths, Patrick Mcbride.

The main premise of this installation is that fifteen artists are each given two days to work in and respond to the existing conditions within the gallery space, free to alter and change or respond to anything done by the preceding artists. The only ‘rule’ is that the work of other artists cannot be removed from the gallery. Specific artwork is not curated; artists are instead asked to participate in a process, which takes a total of one month, after which the installation is opened to the public.