Cut from sandpaper and stamped with the word “Artworker,” these membership cards were distributed at a temporary Artworkers Hall established by the Lower Mainland Painting Co. (LMPC)* during a 2011 residency at Shudder Gallery in Vancouver. On Thursday nights, free fare included artist-produced beer, moonshine, and fudge cake. Signifying nothing other than the holder’s act of self-identification as an artist, the cards could be obtained by anyone who attended a meeting. In issuing this invitation, the LMPC sought to build a self-aware community united not only by space but also by desire. The sandpaper stock alludes to a host of varied references: the founding members’ rent-paying trade at the time (prepping and painting walls), performative conversations about art and work which took place at the gallery during the residency, and Mémoires, a 1957 Situationist artist’s book by Guy Debord and Asger Jorn best known for its sandpaper dust jacket. Just as the book’s cover rubbed against readers’ hands and tabletops, the membership cards casually abrade wallets and their contents.
*Members of the LMPC include: Brody Kitchen (Berlin); Byron Peters (San Francisco); Gabriel Saloman (Vancouver); Heather “Noodle” Jones (Bellingham); Nathan Crompton (Vancouver); Nicholas Perrin (Vancouver); and Sylvain Daval (Brussels).
