Shoot the Works:

Once an avant-practice, participatory art has now been canonised and colonised by the wider art world apparatus. It's in and on the books, a viable option, one of many no-longer-alternative approaches. But what of the actions that go beyond the set rules and measures, the actions that go unnoticed or unrecorded, disregarded or ignored, whose agents are demonised or written off as mad; the artists and vandals who snub the land of letters to act out their criticality in the world of actions and objects, the world of conviction and consequence? 

Combining recent art works and historical examples, Shoot the Works sheds light on a near-hidden corner of culture, an insalubrious sector often dismissed and disparaged by the powers that be: the vandalism and intentional damage of works of art by independent citizens, be they artists or civilians. The exhibition is not an attempt to somehow legitimise or validate these events - it aims, instead, to begin a conversation. All these events occurred in the public realm, so there is a democratic responsibility to open them to public scrutiny or, at least, scrutinise them in public. With evidence comes examination and critical evaluation, private readings and public hearings, disagreement or accord. With fewer secrets we can talk more, and that can only be a good thing.