The Art Collective

Collective member David King played a key co-ordination role on Nov. 8, 2005, when the large-scale interactive piece titled Taking Apart Pop Culture was produced at the VAV Gallery's Inter/activity show in downtown Montreal.

Along with collective member Monica Eckert, David worked to resolve the frequently disparate work of more than 20 artists who worked on the mixed-media piece during a collaborative art making intervention within a gallery context. You can view photos of the process of creation of this piece in our Photos section.

David agreed to write about the experience of helping co-ordinate work on the interactive piece, which was exhibited in the lobby of the Visual Arts Building at Concordia University's high-profile Faculty of Fine Arts between Nov. 8 and Nov. 19, 2005. Here is David's account:

The large work began quite slowly with only small unrelated marker drawings occupying the white massive sheet. I wondered if the drawing would ever get finished. Some larger collage elements started to appear and the drawing seemed to have more direction. When some more daring artists dropped by, they added large areas of paint across the drawing. Along with other collective members, I used the paint to integrate the different areas together, which previously had been mostly drawn with permanent ink graphic markers. Throughout the course of the night, many different artists dropped by to add their touches to the work; some stayed for extended periods of time while others simply added a few quick marks. A few hours into the drawing, it was definitely beginning to take shape and the paper was mostly filled. At some point in the night, the acrylic inks were unleashed and collective member Chan Tchen carefully splashed the drawing with them. This ended up unifying the whole surface of the drawing, but it lacked a resolution. A handful of collective members managed to finish and resolve the drawing from this point by integrating the various colours, textures and mark making. Most of the evening I happened to take on the role as the unofficial director of the drawing. I rarely added my own drawings, but instead focused on resolving the work and giving it a unified direction.
Collective member Monica Eckert did much the same. The end result of many hours work by many artists is a drawing that is incredibly dense and layered. Confusing yet ordered.
Filled with the energy of dozens of artists.