The Button Project (2010, 2011)
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Simultaneously ubiquitous and overlooked, the button is an insidious invention. With the earliest ones found nearly 5000 years BC, buttons of all sorts of materials (wood, bone, glass, plastic etc) have stood the test of time.
Almost everyone would have more than a button to spare. From the inside tag of a shirt, or the top of one’s trousers, to the random cluster of them in a box somewhere in the house, a button is taken for granted but necessary. Donate your spare or found button. Every button has a story to tell. This work aims to explore the crossovers between art and the everyday ritual of dressing, the history of ownership and collection, adornment and function. It also examines the relationship we have with readymades in the process of artmaking, specifically in light of environmental concerns. It also serves as an interactive approach that solicits found objects to be reemployed as an art installation. On another level, the work seeks to explore meaningful connections that may be facilitated via an art work – through the contributions by various members and organizations in the society, the audience of an exhibition is expanded to include a larger community. At the end of the exhibition, the buttons will also be re-channelled to a co-op to be re-fashioned as items that will contribute to the livelihood of the members involved. The Button Project was first shown at Trispace, LASALLE in Jan 2010, and The Button Project II was in Touch Points exhibition, at Evil Empire, Singapore in 2011. Related project: A Button in Exchange with Sol LeWitt
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The Making of a Button (Video by Rubin Hashim)
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