Factory Girl
Reset

August 24 – September 13

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About   |  FAQs 

Assignments  

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About Reset

 

If your 2020 was like our 2020, you might have benefitted from a Factory (Girl) Reset. 
 

From August to September, seeking respite from the thrashings of our own shattered brains — a way to turn the poor things off and on again — we trialled a selection of assignments inspired by and in some cases borrowed from from Learning to Love You More (see FAQs for details). And they worked! Each one left us refreshed, lifted, lighter.

 

In the hope that what worked for us may also work for others, we invited Gallery Faux patrons to have a go.  Participants could select a brief and send us the results for inclusion in this exhibition.. 

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What's emerged is a record of our daily lives, in the UK and in Aotearoa NZ and, from some contributors, points in between; the similarities and the contrasts in our enviroments and preoccupations as we navigated the unfamiliar territory laid bare by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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Read Craig Foltz's response to the show >

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FAQs

Who is Factory Girl?

We are Sarah Read (artist, based in the UK and pining for Aotearoa) and Sondra Bacharach (philosopher in Wellington). We're members of Wellington-based collective Occupation: Artist. Factory Girl is the character we conceived in March to front our collaboration for Gallery Faux. She started out as our jaunty superhero with world-saving aspirations. However, 2020 has taken its toll and she's ready for a Factory Reset; her strapline could be Factory Girl: Making Things a Little Bit Better (For Part of the Day, At Least)



Why Reset?

In March 2020, when we proposed our Faux show, lockdown was new and we were smashing it out of the park. From our respective hemispheres we baked, we gardened, we practiced mindful exercise, we zoomed. We were giddy with transglobal re/connection and possibility. Surely now a new world order must emerge; an end to senseless growth and consumerism, to inequality. Our collaboration, we felt, would be something thought-provoking, bold, and deep; celebrating all of this fresh splendour. ​​ Jump to August, and... nope. The world shambles on. Sarah is beading obsessively and craving immersive studio projects. A former devotee of Zen running she's now finding strange comfort in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Zombies, Run! app ( Run in the Real World. Become a Hero in Another). Sondra, juggling parenting and her academic responsibilities under the double whammy of the NZ resurgence + online teaching antics, runs away from it all in the Tawatawa reserve, while walking her dog. Escape is what we both need. In different ways. You might too. Hence Reset.



How can I participate?

Simply select an assignment that meets your needs and dive on in. If you'd like your work to feature in our exhibition, get it to us by the end of 10 September 2020. See the FAQs below.



Who is Reset for?

Reset is for us, the Factory Girl collaborators, and for anyone esle who would like to take part.



How do I send you my work?

We were hoping to have an upload feature on the website, but Wix requires us to upgrade to Buisness Plan for that; grrrr. So: Email or We Transfer: sarah.read@xtra.co.nz (Please don't use Google docs or other filesharing platforms; We Transfer is reliable, secure, you don't need to sign up for anything, and it's easy for us to download mulitple files with the minimum of clicking - we're thinking OOS/RSI minimisation here) Be sure to send the assignment number with your work, and remember the text elements requested by the brief; this lets us caption your entries. Note: If you're sending work on behalf of a child, let us know that in the email and we'll prioritise their work so they can see it in the gallery asap after sending.



What is LTLYM / Learning to Love you More?

Learning to Love You More is a participatory project which exhibited work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher.

'Participants accepted an assignment, completed it by following the simple but specific instructions, sent in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and their work got posted on-line at learningtoloveyoumore.com. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments was intended to guide people towards their own experience. 'From 2002 to its close in 2009, over 8000 people participated in the project. In 2010 the website was acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, ensuring that Learning to Love You More will continue to exist online as an archive of the project. And of course there is no reason to stop doing assignments; we've noticed some people are even posting them on their own versions of LTLYM.'* The website is a wonderful resource for artists, writers, students, teachers, parents - anyone in fact who needs a boost for (or a break from) just about anything. Because sometimes it's a relief to be told what to do.... *Description from the Learning to Love You More website learningtoloveyoumore.com



When will my work appear in Gallery Faux?

That depends on the response we get. We'll add entries in the order in which they arrive, with the rider that we'll fast-track pieces that have involved children, for maximum incentive/reward experience for them. Images received via email or We Transfer by 10 September and that follow the brief will be added into the gallery page for the assignment as soon as we can.



How long do I have to complete an assignment?

Our advice is do the project as quickly as you can. Do it right now in fact, or no later than tomorrow, because, as we all know, if you put something off you will probably never get around to doing it. If you'd like to participate in our exhibition, get your images and text to us by 10 September 2020.



If I have any questions, who do I contact?

Please contact sarah.read@xtra.co.nz



Can I do more than one assignment?

Yes, you can do as many as you like.



Do I have to follow the instructions exactly as they are written?

Every report that follows the assignment's instructions and gets to us by 10 September 2020 will be posted on this site. Work that does not follow the specifications will not be posted. It is very important that you attempt to follow the instructions as accurately as possible.



What types of images/sound/video files do you accept?

For display on this website:
- We accept images formatted as jpegs (.jpeg/.jpg),
- Acceptable sound formats are Mp3s (.mp3), aiffs (.aiff) and wave (.wav) files. - Accepted video format are Mp4s



Can I do the same assignment more than once?

Sure. We'll exhibit a maximum of five versions of one assignment by the same person.



 

© 2020
Occupation: Artist