Oil Stick Work (Angelo Martinez / Richfield, Kansas) 2008

In Oil Stick Work, the simulated character Angelo Martinez paints one portion of this barn, a portrayal of a structure found in the panhandle region of Oklahoma, with an oil stick crayon six days a week. It takes the whole day, from dawn till dusk, to complete this action.
Working on this schedule, Martinez will complete the task of painting the entire structure in within thirty years – in 2038, after which he will no longer come to work, and the artwork will go on existing as a 'finished piece'. In the words of the artist, 'as a silhouette in the landscape'.

Part of the 'Animated Scene' body of work, Oil Stick Work has been exhibited at institutions globally, including at the Venice Biennale in 2009, and in Canary Wharf, London as part of Art on the Underground program, for which it was exhibited for an entire calendar year.

Producer: Werner Poetzelberger
Programmers: Helmut Bressler, Matthias Strohmaier
Modeller: Daniel Fellsner
Model: Angelo Martinez
Presentation design / Corian fabrication: Jakob Illera / Inseq, Vienna

Video by Davor Opacak
Photos by Alex Davies

Installed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Australia
29 March - 3 June, 2012
site specific free standing projection wall
608 cm x 380 x 30 cm

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Oil Stick Work at Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia, 2012

29 March - 3 June 2012
'Marking Time'
608 cm x 380 x 30 cm site specific free standing projection wall
Group show curated by Rachel Kent

Marking Time explored the ways in which artists visualise time and its passing, across diverse media – drawing and watercolour, sculpture and installation, sound and light. An international exhibition selected by MCA Senior Curator Rachel Kent, Marking Time presented major works by eleven artists from Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and the United States in the Museum’s spacious new top floor galleries.

Oil Stick Work at Canary Wharf Station, London, UK, 2010

14 May 2010 – 14 May 2011
'Art on the Underground'
Canary Wharf Station, London, UK
Solo exhibition
1200 cm x 800 cm x 50 cm site specific monolithic block wall

www.art.tfl.gov.uk

Oil Stick Work at La Biennale di Venezia, Italy, 2009

7 June – 30 September 2009
John Gerrard 'Animated Scene'
53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale die Venezia
Site specific free standing projection wall
450 cm x 600 cm x 30 cm
Solo show curated by Jasper Sharp and Patrick T. Murphy

'Animated Scene' presented three new works as large-scale projections. Each work introduced a virtual scene - astonishingly real but entirely and meticulously fabricated by the artist and his studio between 2007-09 – based on documentation of the agri-industrial landscapes of the American Great Plains, scattered with grain silos, pig production units and small towns.

http://venice.johngerrard.net/