Still from How to Live, 2020
Commissioned by John Hansard Gallery, UK
How to How to
Featuring: Marion Balac, David Blandy, Nina Davies, Molly Soda and Petra Szemán
Curated by: Off Site Project
Part of: Sluice [Vernacular] Colchester
Dates: 14 - 16 June 2024
On the internet you can learn how to do anything, ‘How to How to’ is a screening exhibition of artworks styled in the dialects of how-to pages and tutorial videos.
Explainer videos have calcified into unique genres; wikiHow has become a rich vein of obscure aesthetics; TikTok transmits trends from celebrity sources; Quora aggregates answers to questions you never thought of asking. Agoras of the digital age become defined by new cultural codes of practice. Participant or lurker, artists respond by adopting these conventions and twisting them as narrative vehicles or loving satires.
Visit Sluice and their programme of exhibitions and events taking place in Colchester later this month. Produced in partnership with The Minories (@theminories).
Founded in 2011, Sluice is an independent arts organisation that produces a bi-annual magazine and hosts multi-gallery expo programmes in disused buildings. In 2020 their Exchange Berlin program brought twenty galleries to Berlin, whilst in 2022 Terr+Tory featured twenty-seven galleries in Barreiro, an under visited city across the river from Lisbon. Their 2024 programme comes to Colchester, UK, with the theme of vernacular cultures that plays upon the city’s history as the site of Boudicca’s rebellion and the Peasants’ Revolt.
