Sal Randolph

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Sal Randolph

Born May 30, 1959
New York City, New York
Nationality American, United States
Field Social architecture, Gift Economies, and Internet Art
Training Harvard University & Radcliffe College
Works Free Manifesta Free Words Opsound
Awards Massachusetts Artist Fellowship

Sal Randolph (born 1959) is an American artist and theorist who works with issues of gift-giving, money, alternate economies, and social architecture, and whose projects often reference issues surrounding post-autonomous art. She founded the non-curated sound-exchange web project Opsound[1][2], which functions through the use of music released exclusively under a copyleft license. This project has been repeatedly cited by Lawrence Lessig as an example of how Creative Commons works to enable artists to collaborate more freely and build on each other's work[3][4]. Other large-scale, collaborative projects created and implemented by Randolph include Free Manifesta and The Free Biennial, in which several hundred artists presented their work in free and open shows in New York's and Frankfurt am Main's public spaces. Artists participating in those projects included Christophe Bruno, Aram Saroyan, Swoon (artist), and Michael Cunningham, among many others.

Of particular note is Randolph's novel method of entry into Manifesta 4: Pursuing her ongoing interest in issues surrounding money and economies of attention and exclusivity, she gained entry into the famed exhibition by purchasing her entry from the Basel-based Christoph Büchel when that artist auctioned his participation rights on eBay[5] -- which was itself an art piece/provocation. This led to Free Manifesta, in which, through Randolph, hundreds of artists were suddenly allowed to participate in the previously exclusive Manifesta. This work extended the artist's first large-scale cooperative project,The Free Biennial in her home city of New York, which came into being as her response to the Whitney Biennial, and which also garnered the participation of a wide range of noted artists across many disciplines. Among her other projects is Free Words, an early shopdropping (a form of culture jamming) project which garnered an international network of volunteers who "introduced" the book Free Words (a large collection of random words initially assembled by Randolph -- and later by hundreds of project contributors -- over many years[6]) into bookstores and libraries around the world. Other projects include works in sound art[7], and a variety of exhibitions within the collaborative Glowlab. Recent projects include Free Money[8] (shown in Vancouver, where she was invited to participate in the Live Biennale[9]), Free Press (shown in Röda Sten Contemporary Art Space in Göteborg, Sweden, where the artist created an open access publishing house[10]), ReadingBetween, and InTheConversation.

Her work as a writer and theorist[11][12][13][14][15] explores issues related to post-autonomous art and the gift.

The artist's work has been presented in numerous museum and gallery exhibitions, including Manifesta 4 and "Don’t Miss" in Frankfurt am Main, the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK) and BüroFriedrich Gallery in Berlin, La Box in Bourges, the Palais de Tokyo and Bétonsalon in Paris, Röda Sten in Göteborg, Live Bienalle/Western Front in Vancouver, Art Interactive and Oni Gallery in Boston, as well as Cinders Gallery, Pace Digital Gallery, the Fountain Art Fair, Salvation Gallery, and the Conflux Festival in New York. Randolph teaches and lectures as a visiting artist and has recently appeared in that capacity at the UCRIA conference, Open Engagement, Maryland Institute College of Art, the GEL conference, Massachusetts College of Art, Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach, and RISD.


[edit] References

  1. ^ Opsound’s Sal Randolph - Creative Commons
  2. ^ FT.com / Services & tools / Search
  3. ^ Lessig Blog
  4. ^ GLOCOM Platform - Special Topics - Activity Report
  5. ^ Art in America: Manifesta 4: defining Europe? Acting more as facilitators than as curatorial stars, the organizers of last summer's Manifesta created an experimental visual forum—with mixed results - Report From Frankfurt
  6. ^ The Free Words Project
  7. ^ Psy-Geo Provflux 2005 :: ADJACENT: Listen Now :: Sal Randolph
  8. ^ Infinite Exchange Gallery
  9. ^ 2007 LIVE Biennale: Words: Sal Randolph // Free Money
  10. ^ Röda Sten
  11. ^ Sal Randolph: Notes on Social Architectures as Art Forms
  12. ^ Sal Randolph: Culture is Public Because Meaning Is
  13. ^ Sal Randolph: Beautiful Money (Art as Currency, Art as Experience)
  14. ^ Sal Randolph: Some Experiments in Art as Gift
  15. ^ Sal Randolph: In the Conversation (Art Talk Outside the Cube)


[edit] Additional References


[edit] External Links


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