PASS IT ON
Tell the stories that your father told you about your grandfather.
Do not tell them as though they were your own, be sure to include that these events occurred in the twentieth century.
Name names.
Trevor H. Smith
2017
Find Yourself a Home Town
Find out where you belong.
Go there.
Become the person you always knew you were, but could never be, had you remained in the town you grew up in.
Find out where you belong, and go there.
Trevor H. Smith
2017
You Have Deleted Your Privacy
For 24 hours replace every CCTV camera in the city with a person, let’s call them assistants.
Equip assistants with a smartphone and access to social media accounts belonging to the project @deletedprivacy.
Assistants should film, photograph, or write about whatever they see, and upload it to the relevant social media.
Use face recognition technology to allow members of the public to tag themselves in any media containing their likeness.
See how they willingly surrender their anonymity.
Trevor H. Smith
2016
Surveillance
Address an audience.
Ask every member of the audience to randomly select a fellow audience-member and stare at them for one minute.
Any two people that coincidentally chose each other must carry on staring for an additional minute.
Trevor H. Smith
2016
Old Me New Me(dia)
Members of Generation X (born 1965-1980).
Set up a social media account on behalf of your teenage self.
Publish your diaries, in real time, as a series of status updates, tweets, and blog posts.
See how the teenage you fares in the post-digital age.
Trevor H. Smith
2016
Shouting Hello to Everyone
The speed of sound at sea level is 340.29 metres per second or 768 miles per hour.
In a gesture of goodwill to your neighbouring landmass, take up a coastal position and shout the word ‘HELLO’ to the occupants of that landmass.
Wait. Do not leave until enough time has passed for your hello to reach them, for them to shout a response, and for that response to reach you.
Example:
The distance from Lizard Point in Cornwall, UK to the northern coast of Spain is 450 miles. Shout hello and wait 1h10m30s.
Your performance should be presented in its full, unedited form.
Trevor H. Smith
2016
Proposal for No Work
The artist will not:
Make an object that has no practical use.
Make a painting or drawing.
Take a photograph.
Appear in anyone else’s photograph, (see work, ‘Appearing in Other People’s Photographs’).
Write any poetry or prose.
Partake in any singing or whistling of any tune not already in existence.
Dance.
Skip.
Nor will the artist:
Present any further proposals for projects.
Trevor H. Smith
2015
Labour of Love
Install a brand new Volvo F12 Globetrotter articulated lorry in a gallery space just big enough to accommodate it. Viewers will only just be able to squeeze around it, the doors can open but only enough to allow visitors to get inside the lorry.
The exhibition will run for one night, with attendance by invitation only.
Invitation list:
Trevor Smith Snr
Trevor H. Smith
Trevor H. Smith
2015
First Impressions
On meeting people for the first time, attempt to imitate their words, speech patterns, and body language.
Make this impression of them the very first thing they see and hear you say and do.
Trevor H. Smith
2015
Directed Viewing
or
Making People Look Where You Want Them to Look
Stand still in a public place.
Look intently at something, either above or below the field of vision for a human of average height.
Continue to look until you feel like stopping.
Record the event on a hidden camera.
Trevor H Smith
2015
Closed Letter
Write a private letter to everyone that publishes an open letter in 2015.
Trevor H. Smith
2015
Russell Putnam’s essence of contemporary art.
Hire out a standard street advertising billboard, measuring 3m x 1.5m.
The entire board must be the whitest white your printer can provide.
In blackest black, centred both horizontally and vertically, print the word ‘LOOK’, to dimensions of your choosing.
Trevor H. Smith
2013
Suggested during a discussion on contemporary art with Russell Putnam.
Making a Statement
Select at random an artist whose work you have never seen.
Attempt to make work based on what the artist’s personal statement says about the work they make.
Exhibit your work alongside theirs.
DELAYED GRATIFICATION
In Helvetica Bold, the words ‘DELAYED GRATIFICATION’, pasted to the gallery space at Bath Spa University, Sion Hill Campus, for the 2012 Fine Art degree show, in the same position that Darragh Boyd exhibited his ‘INSTANT GRATIFICATION’ (see image) one year earlier.
Trevor H. Smith
2012
The Story of Your Life
Vinyl text on the wall in the foyer of a corporate building or public library, depending on irony/sincerity balance of commissioning body.
Text replaced every day for thirty days, revealing the narrative set out by VY Propp in his 1928 study, ‘Morphology of the Folk Tale’
Example:
ABSENTATION
A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. Hero introduced as ordinary person.
Initial tension injected into story.
Trevor H. Smith
2012
Appearing in Other People’s Speed Camera Photographs
Position a pushbike on the pavement adjacent to the capture area of the GATSO speed camera on London Road, Bath.
Arrange for other artists to replicate this performance on a given day in various locations around the UK.
Photographs taken by these cameras form a collection of automated images linked by their containing an artist on a pushbike.
Trevor H. Smith
2011
MIGRATION
1. Freeze the lake.
2. Divide the frozen water into portions equivalent to the relative volumes of its tributary sources.
3. Return each portion to the head of its source.
Water will drain back into the lake as the ice melts.
Trevor H. Smith
2011
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Do not view the exhibition. Please make your way to the photo booth where an assistant will direct you in a short photoshoot.
Go home and pour yourself a drink, or open a bag of crisps, or something else, if you prefer that. Turn off the lights. In the darkness think about what motivates you.
If you would still like to view the exhibition, email iwasthere@trevorhsmith.co.uk
You will receive photographs of yourself in front of the work shortly.
Thank you for your patience.
Trevor H. Smith
2010
A Game to Play at Easter (version 2)
Equipment
12 Cadbury Crème Eggs.
1 Coffee table.
1 Arm chair or sofa, comfy.
1 Wine glass, empty.
Rules for playing the game:
Sit in the chair.
Unwrap and eat a Crème Egg at your leisure.
Compress the foil wrapper into a ball.
From your seated position, attempt to throw the foil-ball into the wine glass.
If you are unsuccessful, repeat this process until you successfully land your foil-ball into the wine glass.
Trevor H. Smith
2010
A Game to Play at Easter (version 1)
Equipment
12 Cadbury Crème Eggs.
1 Coffee table.
1 Arm chair or sofa, comfy.
1 Wine glass, empty.
Rules for playing the game:
Sit in the chair.
Unwrap and eat a Crème Egg at your leisure.
Compress the foil wrapper into a ball.
From your seated position, attempt to throw the foil-ball into the wine glass.
If you are successful, and your ball remains in the glass, repeat this process until you miss.
Trevor H. Smith
2010
Cairns Around Bath
Invite every resident of the city of Bath to bring a stone of their choosing to the summit of one or more of Bath’s (locally) famous seven hills.
The stones will be used to build a cairn in each location.
Initial building of the cairns will occur over one week, with each day being allocated to one of the seven hills. Each location will host a stone-laying event on its allocated day.
Hot and cold drinks are provided. Please take away your rubbish.
Trevor H. Smith
2009
Proposals Project
I will write a series of proposals for new artworks.
The proposed work will never be produced.
These proposals will be presented in place of the work.
Trevor H. Smith
2011