This Art Has No Object

A project commissioned by the Art Gallery of Hamilton intended as a “communicative art project”. No objects or documentation were produced.

 

The art consisted of the changed perceptions of the participants as a result of the communicative process. After researching local issues, I focused on the receivership of Stelco and the threatened loss of workers' pensions.

 

I organized a meeting between a group of retired Steelworkers and a group of high school students in the east end of Hamilton, traditionally the source of workers in the steel industry. Teenagers listened to the old timers’ stories of the past, and the old timers listened to the teenagers' dreams for the future.

 

None of the young people wanted to work in the steel mill.