Personal Set of Instructions - Ryan Simmons

READYMADE
 

 Select an item. Place it amongst white walls

or a gallery space. Create a wall label that corelates

 to the item you have selected and discusses 

the relevance of this object to your life.

Remove the work from the space and dispose

of the wall label. Now the object is art.

Treat it as such.

 

 Ryan Simmons, 2019

 

Originally, I thought of taking ordinary objects that I would regularly treasure, however, I thought it would more interesting and challenging to choose objects that I cherished with varying degrees. Similarly, I recognized that each object would go through the same process so I was interested in choosing works that shared connections with each other. Picking objects that all relate to Mormonism I was able to select objects that I liked, disliked, and have a more complicated relationship with. Also, I knew this work would be challenging in that each object has to be treated as an artwork, which I often treat pretty well, depending on the success of the artwork. This gives me more flexibility than it would perhaps allow others, but it still confines me to taking care of these objects more than I normally would.

In the end by repeating the process five times I was able to create my own personal readymade show and the works were able to communicate with each other for a more interesting conversation and body of work.