‘Sorry We’re Closed’
Paul Conneally
Loughborough
January 2019

I reassign this shop front in its current state an ‘involuntary painting’ something that might be mistaken for a painting. The photograph is not a work of art it is a photograph of an involuntary painting. It may be on show like this in the gallery of the street for a long time or could be gone by the end of tomorrow. It will during its existence almost inevitably change, be changed by the elements, human action, rain, sharpie, spray can, glazier…

Involuntary Painting is a term coined by New York based artist Millree Hughes and developed further by him with me. The Involuntary Painting Facebook Group is we assert a work of art in itself.

As I walked the streets of Loughborough coming across ‘Sorry We’re Closed’ this short extract by Asger Jorn from an Exhibition catalogue, Rive Gauche Gallery (May 1959) came to mind:

“ALL WORKS of art are objects and should be treated as such, but these objects are not ends in themselves: They are tools with which to influence spectators. The artistic object, despite its seemingly objectlike character, therefore presents itself as a link between two subject, the creating and provoking subject on the one hand, and the receiving subject on the other. The latter does not perceive the work of art as a pure object, but as the sign of a human presence.

The problem for the artist is not to know if the work of art should be considered as an object or as a subject, since the two are inseparable. The problem is to capture and to formulate the desired tension in the work between appearance and sign.”

THE GALLERY OF THE STREET IS OPEN

PAUL CONNEALLY
Loughborough
JANUARY 17th 2019