NO SHOW MUSEUM

Is it possible for me to do nothing as my contribution to this exhibition?, 1970.

2nd | B

Text work. Presented as part of the exhibition Idea Structures at the Camden Arts Center, London, in 1970. In the 1960s and 70s, Arnatt became well known as a conceptual artist through his performances, which he documented on film or in photographs. An important aspect of his work is "doing nothing" as a form of artistic practice. For example, in 1969 for a group exhibition Idea Structures, he presented a text piece titled: "IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO DO NOTHING AS MY CONTRIBUTION TO THIS EXHIBITION?"

In the same year, Arnatt sent a typewritten card to the art critic Charles Harrison with the following message: "10.9.70. 8.25pm. THE DECISION TO DO NO ART WORK FOR AN INDEFINITE PERIOD OF TIME IS THE WORK (the work ceases to exist upon production of a subsequent work)."

Self Burial (Television Interference Project), 1969.

2nd | C

Arnatt presented a series of still images of him being buried, with each subsequent photo showing him a little deeper in the ground, so that in the end it looks as if the earth had swallowed him. The project was screened in 1969 at night during one week on the German TV channel WDR, during which a regularly scheduled program was interrupted for two seconds without explanation. The work can be interpreted as comment on the "death of the author" (see Barthes, 1968) or on the notion of the "disappearance of the artwork" (see Walter Benjamin, 1935).