I set out to design an inventive project at Wayfarers that could incorporate the range of skills and approaches an open call for entries would generate, as well as acknowledge the fact that we were going to demand money (which would be necessary to cover our administrative costs, but still made us uncomfortable). We developed the idea for Ransom - a group show that was open to absolutely anyone who paid the ten bucks for the submission fee. We spread the word about the show and 275 artists from all over the world committed to participate. Based on that number, we wrote a True Story with *275 words, and assigned one word to each of the artists. They were to make their words out of virtually any material and then send them to us so that we could arrange them on the walls of the gallery to spell out the True Story in the style of a giant, three-dimensional ransom note.
*A real life fact changed in the True Story, so we added a footnote, and recruited more word-makers. Then another fact changed (real life is slippery), and we recruited more word-makers for that footnote. The current word count for Ransom is 329 and holding. The story, as of this writing, is still true...
Ransom Submissions.
Ransom submissions.
Ransom submissions organized in sleeves.
by Lulu Lolo
by Tyler Hackett
by Matthew Budjinski
