#301: To plant a seed (The Imaginary Art Visual Manifesto)

#201: The Void (A Dream, A Manifesto Offshoot)

I think about blank spaces a lot.

Sometimes I try to fill them with my imagination.  

To create imaginary artworks to fill spaces on walls, on floors, in lives.

But I also think about leaving them blank.

I think about silence.  

I think about silence as a blank space.

I think about blank spaces as silence.  

I think that a blank space in art is the equivalent of silence in music.

John Cage silenced an orchestra.  

I want to call blank spaces art.

Silence where no sound is made (Does Silence Exist? IV): Physical Version

I want to add a small label to the wall of the Tate and in doing so add an artwork to the display.

Waiting for art

I want them to leave a gap in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and give it a title in the catalogue.

Whatever else you see here, this is the future to avoid

It is about silence representing absence.

A place to stop and discuss the other works (but not this one)

Absence of music.

Freedom?

Absence of art.

It is what you make of it

But with instruments all around, or artworks all around.

This is both art and not art

Absence.

Your imaginary art ideas board

I think about absence of art as art.  A title alone and a blank space.

Nothing makes sense

The ultimate void.  

My Nothing, or (I know I believe in nothing but it is) My Nothing

More than a blank canvas, or a white one, or a monochrome one, or a phial of air or an empty shoebox and so on and so forth: and more simple than an elaborate opening to an empty gallery and case.

An absence, a blank space, a void among their opposites.  

A blank space that screams.

A dream.  A blogpost.  An idea.  A manifesto offshoot.

Postscript:

And beyond?  Can it go further?

For beyond the blank canvas there is a blank space and beyond that an empty room.  Then empty floors and empty buildings and beyond - not empty things but empty areas, empty places.

#101: The Imaginary Art Manifesto

If conceptual art does not need to be seen to be understood, then does the artwork need to even exist? 

Can literally anything be art so long as it has been given a clever, or creative, title? 

How much of conceptual art is in the title, or idea, alone?

From these questions the idea of Imaginary Art was born and we asked - 

Can we create art that is only in the imagination, offering each and every viewer their own unique experience?

Can we have art without a sellable end product?  An art that is more democratic, that potentially exists entirely outside the Art World? 

In answer we created Imaginary Art and say -

Imaginary Art is a creative writing exercise and experiment.

Imaginary Art seeks to create individual experiences and one of a kind artworks in the mind.

Imaginary Art is online, in blog posts advertised on social media.  It could exist in galleries, on canvas and other mediums, on posters, on mugs and on t-shirts.  But it might be best online.  As such, it could be displayed in every gallery in the world at one time.  But, more importantly, in every home with the world wide web.  

Imaginary Art can be the description of an artwork that does not exist.  Perhaps it should, perhaps it could.  But in many cases it should not.  And does not need to.

Imaginary Art can be an idea for a group activity.

Imaginary Art can be an exercise for the mind, a form of mindfulness.  

Imaginary Art is often homage.  A way to point you to real art, to celebrate art that is loved.

Imaginary Art is not anti-art.  It is a way to make you feel and think; to create.  

Imaginary Art is democratising, it allows everyone to be an artist - however much they wish to participate.  

Imaginary Art is not original or unique, and does not claim to be.

Imaginary Art is Conceptual Art.  Without the art.  Imaginary Art is conceptual.

Imaginary Art can be loose or very precise.  Expansive, or very concise.

Imaginary Art is quite possibly the most naive art.

Imaginary Art is not the future.  

Imaginary Art will not sweep the old art aside.

Imaginary Art is a nonsense.  Imaginary Art should be, and hopefully is, fun(ny).

The Imaginary Art Manifesto is a definition and a call to like-minded souls who would like to write, participate, or both.  

Let us bring this experience to the world.

Let us imagine together and apart.

Let us create and help others to create their own unique works of imaginary art.