Diving into the wreck

Research Background Diving into the Wreck was a 4 x 5 metre collage constructed from one day's worth of newspapers, ink and pastel, set in repeat and presented as a floor covering on which members of the public were invited to deliver and destroy old and superfluous consumer objects and detritus from their lives. The performative destruction pointed to the wastefulness of consumer society and the madness of contemporary politics. The work was named after Adrienne Rich's poem Diving into the Wreck, and was presented in the group exhibition Dada Lives! by guest curator Joe Pascoe. Dada Lives! was an exhibition that reflected on 100 years since the inception of Dada, an art movement which began in Europe as a reaction to World War 1. It rejected traditional aesthetics in favour of irony, humour and destabilising the norm. Exhibiting artists included Anonymous, Stephen Benwell, Mark Cain, Anika Cook, Nicholas Jones, William Kelly, Anastasia Klose, Kir Larwill, Elizabeth Liddle, John O'Neil and Stefan Szonyi. Research Contribution Diving into the Wreck was exhibited under the moniker "anonymous" as a tribute to Dada artist Marcel Duchamp's iconic work Fountain, an industrial urinal which was famously presented under the pseudonym "R Mutt". Diving into the Wreck also referenced the intentions and aesthetics of the Berlin Dadaists who used photomontage to parody current affairs and politics, particular in relation to war. The aim was to draw the viewer's attention to the history of art as protest, the creative side of destruction, and to reflect on a century of artists' responses to war, violence and the political discourse of the media. The work included a public performance and a panel discussion on the history of Dada, enabling a contribution to current thinking about art's relation to the social and political sphere. (cont. on research coversheet)