Sarah Browne

b.1981, Ireland

The Gift is conceived of as a participatory artwork involving a handful of particular groups of people and actively engaging with their living space. Six sofas were sourced by the artist, re-covered with a particular pattern, and distributed as gifts to people who might not otherwise be consumers of gallery-based art. The printed pattern, constructed from Irish White Potatoes packaging and iconic text from the Declaration of Independence, addresses notions of lifestyle and identity, and how such ideas are linked to physical and cultural consumption. The pattern exists as the artist’s intervention on an old, disused piece of furniture, giving it new life and conferring upon it a potential new value.

The sofa is given in exchange for documentation of the object in its new environment, using such lens-based processes as video and photography, and is completely negotiable with the participant. Money is bypassed in these transactions. These are exchanges based on something else – transactions of trust – and must be undertaken with a genuine and respectful spirit on both sides. The timeframe for the video lasts only as long as appropriate: it is important not to overstay a welcome, and when the tea is drunk, the video camera is turned off and it is time to go. The sofas exist as tokens for sparking an interaction between people, and are not sold, but distributed as gifts. Their worth does not lie in their exchange value, but in their capacity to be used in an ordinary living space, to catalyse a dialogue with an alternative audience. It is hoped that the representation of these sofas in such an environment will serve to open up a mental space outside that of the gallery/exhibition space.

(Text: imagine limerick catalogue, 2004)