"Two guys walk into a hardware store..."

"Two guys walk into a hardware store..." är titeln på The Art Guys utställning på Galleri Andersson Sandström. Utställningen pågår till och med den 17 september.

...and make an exhibition.
That’s it. The punch line is this show. Get it?

As a consequence of having recently built and moved into our new studio, we’ve been spending a lot of time at the hardware store. So, needless to say, we’ve been thinking about this stuff a lot lately.
Using materials from a hardware store is hardly unusual for artists. After all, many artists, if not most, obtain the materials for their work from hardware stores. But our intention with this exhibition was to use hardware store materials in such a way so that they would somehow maintain their “hardware-ness” (whatever that is).
The materials we selected, and how we chose to work with these materials, do not derive from any pre-conceived formulas or theories. Rather, as we often do when developing and selecting works, we simply said, “That would be interesting,” or “That would be funny.” So the process was, as usual, somewhat intuitive. For us, making art (whatever that is) is often a case of trying new things, experimenting with materials that are somewhat familiar to us, dealing with them in unfamiliar ways, and then trusting that the work will have some sort of resonance with audiences.

Much of this show is still in the research and development stage and many of the pieces are, in fact, studies for more substantial works. So you have the opportunity to consider these ideas in their formative state. Which means we have more work to do. So, if you could please excuse us...

-The Art Guys, 2007