Artist Alex Farrar recently moved into – what he assumes will be – one of the last homes that he will live in. Whilst preparing to relocate, he realised that the boxes he and his wife were using to move their belongings had been used more than once. With some he could trace the most significant steps his partner and he had taken in the past twelve years. He made ‘retiring’ these boxes the subject of a residency at Grafische Atelier Hilversum as part of the Grafiekprijs Pim Olivier, where he explored monotype printing as a direct and tactile way of capturing the traces of each move.
Each box was inked once, by pressing it face down on an inking plate. This produced a large debossed print on lining paper. In the next pressing, a print was made from the surface area of the outside of the moving box. The moving box was then folded and pressed again to produce subsequent prints, until the box couldn’t be folded further or no ink remained to print.
Relieved of the pressure to find secure, affordable housing – and painfully aware of how fortunate he is to be in this position – Farrar began a parallel research project that invited others to share their experiences of housing. He started having conversations with the people around him, using the question ‘do you live with moving boxes?’ as a starting point. At NAP+ he is presenting texts he wrote after two of these conversations, engraved on name plates that reference the ways in which inhabitants of apartments identify themselves at their front doors.
When he moved for the last time, one of the things he let go of was the idea that he would one day build his own house, which he had always hoped would be possible with the help of his father, a now retired bricklayer. In response, last summer Farrar invited his father to teach him how to build a house in his atelierwoning. Together they built two corners, a doorway, a window opening and part of a garden wall, realising a typical (English) house in fragments. For NAP+ he is adding to the fragment of a garden wall, or boundary wall, that he made last summer, with two extra fragments. Positioned in the space usually preserved for gallery seating, they invite visitors to rest, read a book, or talk to their neighbours.
Alex Farrar (1986) is an artist based in Amsterdam, originally from West Yorkshire in the North of England. He studied at Leeds College of Art, UK, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. His practice explores the exhibition as an experimental civic space and uses diverse making processes ranging from bricklaying to embroidery. With forms that often draw from the ‘nervous body’ and involuntary expressions such as sweating, trembling, and nail biting, Farrar’s work reflects on what it feels like to be in the world. Recent projects have involved collaborations with non-artists that critically examine how we understand the conditions of our lives.
Recent solo and duo exhibitions have been held at Art Antwerp with Season 4 Episode 6; Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon; and Galerie SPZ, Prague. Recent group exhibitions have been hosted at Dürst Britt & Mayhew, The Hague; Rib, Rotterdam; Garage, Rotterdam; Arti & Amicitiae, Amsterdam; Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam. Farrar’s publications have been regularly nominated for and awarded ‘The Best Dutch Book Designs’ and exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Work by Farrar is held in private and public collections, including the AKZO Nobel Art Foundation and De Nederlandsche Bank.
