Devised by artist Suzanne Smith, implemented by anonymous participants, Blob Spottingis a stealth mark-making intervention designed to coincide with the nationwide Big Draw campaign. Borrowing from guerrilla marketing techniques, female participants place red circular stickers centrally on any surface they sit on for one week, in silent protest at the application of VAT to apparently non-essential sanitary products.
Running as part of curator Anneka French's Interventions Part 1: Dispersal project, this experiment in mass contrariness forms part of Smith's ongoing interest in the performativity of gender and determinedly polite inappropriateness.
Anonymous participants post photographic documentation of their movement and low-level dissent here on this blog. A bird's eye view of the project can be seen on the interactive Blob Spotting map.
A massive thank you to everyone who has been involved!
Click on the map to explore the activity
INTERVENTIONS PART 1: DISPERSAL
A series of guerilla artworks from four emerging artists based in Nottingham, Lincoln, Birmingham and Manchester which interact with a variety of public spaces and contexts throughout the country. Typically low-tech, ephemeral and humble, the dispersed gestures are easily overlooked but attempt to surprise and challenge the audience that discover them. The artworks operate independently of each other but address common notions including temporality, protest, communication, mapping and migration. Curated by Anneka French, Interventions is a long-term umbrella project format, with the use of interventions into public spaces at its core. The project serves as a platform for a different type of art exhibition, one which is nomadic, discovered and able to engage with a wide and unsuspecting audience base.
George Hardy: The Peaceful Righteously Laid-Back Party
A reaction to right-wing political canvassing, Hardy's work appropriates the format of the pamphlet alongside the notion of the art manifesto. Hardy seeks to subvert these practices through developing an alternative way of living and working through The Peaceful Righteously Laid-Back Party which encourages creativity and inclusivity. The distribution of these hand-drawn pamphlets forms an attempt to redress the political balance through a blend of humour and optimism. text: Anneka French
Diana Ali: Distant Dialogues
Ali's work seeks to examine an increasingly redundant form of communication: the art of writing a letter. Her project Distant Dialogues is formed of two parts with the ultimate aim being to engage an audience member in written dialogue with the artist for a period of one year. This communication is facilitated through notices positioned in a number of public spaces throughout the country addressing the audience directly. text: Anneka French
Kate Pennington-Wilson: Daleks
Pennington-Wilson uses sachets of salt acquired from cafés which feature an image of a salt cellar. Transforming this image into the form of a Dalek, the artist conceptually alters the sachet from object to artwork through a process of drawing. The generic product thereby becomes something unique, ironically through the application of a homogeneous motif. The re-insertion of these altered sachets back into the café environment for discovery (and ultimate destruction) by an audience completes the life-cycle of the work. text: Anneka French
Suzanne Smith: Blob Spotting
Smith'sBlob Spotting is an active, if silent, protest against the addition of VAT to ‘non-essential’ sanitary products. The artwork takes the form of a set of red circular stickers and instructions devised by the artist, which allow engagement in low-key mark-making activism by a number of participants. Chairs, steps, anywhere the participant has sat upon, become tagged in a subversive act. Audience members can discover these 'blobs' for themselves or track their location via this blog. text: Anneka French