OURKEA

Participatory Performance / Social Practice, 2015.
In collaboration with Josh Finn, Leora Fridman, and Shawn Manchester (as The Bureau).

Description

For one day in July of 2015, the art collective known as The Bureau transformed an Ikea in California into a coworking space. They brought together crowds of people to sit at Ikea’s desks, use Ikea’s free wifi, drink Ikea’s coffee and tea, and take naps in Ikea’s beds when they tired. After all, the narrative for many recent years has been one of a changing work-landscape: one works to “build capacity” in spaces of “social entrepreneurship” that “cross sectors” into a “radical inclusivity”. Still, workers so often find themselves in shiny, sterile work-spaces -- stuck in a cube, even if it’s a brightly-colored cube. What might it be like to truly re-envision work, and to collectivize spaces of commerce as spaces to labor together?

Exhibitions, Screenings, and Performances

• “Making Art / Making Community,” Vicki Myhren Gallery, Denver, CO. Mar 8 - 29, 2018.

• “Signification,” A1 Lab Arts, Knoxville, TN. Sep 2 - 8 2016. 

• “Ourkea,” The Bureau, Ikea Emeryville, Emeryville, CA.