Absence
a 21st Century delicacy
Spurred on by the roaring success of ‘Telephone Booth’ I continued on the theme of absence which at this point was drawing a huge crowd. Inspired by this, I drew a huge crowd. Specifically, a very long queue.
The work was long, and gruelling. I spent several months in queues as part of my research, and what i discovered was that 8 out of 10 queues form spontaneously with 73% of participants claiming they have no idea why they joined the queue.
‘it looked like a good way to spend a saturday’ said one ardent queuer standing outside an unnamed coffee shop, with another adding ‘i was just looking for something to do with the kids that didn’t cost 100 pounds’.
We laughed. then we tutted. and that’s when i decided i needed to do something.
absence
‘An interactive experience and
love letter to the queue’
‘absence’ is an interactive, illustrated installation which undeniably was a massive hit.
guests queued for hours on the opening night just to have their photo taken in ‘the queue'.
The show received unilateral acclaim and was heralded as ‘the best thing to happen to queue’s since the invention of the gallery rope’. Visitors described the experience as ‘The best 30 seconds of the day’ and ‘I just got bored.’
