Open Call for Online Exhibition - Retrospect: Decommissioned Works

If you work as an artist long enough, at some point, you will end up with decommissioned works, either by choice, by chance or by nature. Maybe you moved, downsized, and had to pitch that big canvas in the dumpster, set that sculpture to the curb. Maybe it was your favorite work, but got destroyed by fire or flood. Maybe it got left behind, borrowed, lost. Or if you’re like me, and embrace a degree of ephemerality, a sort of Fluxus, process-over-product approach, repurposing and destruction may already be built into your practice. Maybe it was a site-specific installation, documentation of a one-time performance, or just a perfect studio moment captured, that didn’t live beyond a day, an hour. 

This Lodger virtual exhibition open call seeks images of works that, for whatever reason, are dead, gone, no longer in existence. This might be a recent decommission or could go back several decades. Reach deep into your archive and revive these destroyed, demolished, lost, dead works. Whether smashed by hammer in a manic, self-critical delirium or lovingly set aflame and adrift in a clear-headed creative pivot- let us memorialize that they once existed, and for better or worse, that they hold a place in the evolution of your practice. And remember that all art has a life cycle. All art will eventually die. The Birth of Venus will eventually turn to dust. Digital files will corrupt, and servers will be reclaimed by nature. And in the end all will be consumed by the Sun. So have fun! 

Send 1-3 clear images of decommissioned works with title, medium and year of creation - year of destruction to: lodgergallery@gmail.com

One work per entry may be chosen. No fee & no thematic or conceptual requirements other than no longer existing. Video accepted. 

Feel free to include an optional tombstone epitaph about the work. 

This exhibition will be virtual on lodgergallery.com

Deadline: July 1, 2023
Online Exhibit: July 12, 2023