For the exhibition ENGELS…ENGELS…ENGELS Rainer Ganahl has become an Ebay addict. The artist is searching for the ‘working class’ on Ebay. In his contemporary visitation of the 1844 Engels text The Condition of the Working Class in England he began scouting and bidding on items using the key words ‘working class’ and ‘industrial’. WORKING CLASS: A PORTABLE LIBRARY CONSISTING OF 24 BOOKS PURCHASED ON EBAY.CO.UK FOR 0.99 GBP PLUS SHIPPING & HANDLING COSTS flaunts the internet’s inclination for penny pinching purchases. THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS: SHOPPING ON EBAY.CO.UK: Vintage industrial factory cart, mill truck, table/prop, £355 plus postage and packing and THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS: SHOPPING ON EBAY.CO.UK: Vintage Industrial TanSad Machinists Chair, £102.13 plus postage and packing required engagement in extensive bidding processes, indicating niche markets which could not be predicted by the buyer. The items are easily distributed from every continent by commercial and private sellers, having found themselves on Ebay in a partially organised world full of omissions and surplus. Using a similar idea for the GOOGLE ENGELS: FREDERICK ENGELS series of paintings, links found to the ‘key word’ Engels are both distinct and banal. The internet gives the impression that one can be taken anywhere, and yet it encourages indifference, in the end everything is reduced to exactly the same level.
Prior to the exhibition Ganahl undertook seminars in Bury, reading Engels ‘The Condition of the Working Classes in England’. The resulting photograph and film Reading Friedrich Engels, The condition of the working class, 1842, Manchester 2011 are part of his S/L seminar series. Acting like a diary, the imagery depicts the often dramatic and sometimes tiresome procedure of learning. The artist seems to use the project as an ode to his love for the role of the student, which he perpetually places himself within in much of his work.
Two films were made during the artist’s stay in Salford where Engels lived when he wrote The Condition of the Working Classes in England. In one film Ganahl kicks a volume of Engels through Manchester until it’s exploded into many parts. Another film entitled MANCHESTER SITE SEEING: IN MEMORY OF MARY BURNS: THE IRISH QUARTER is based on Engels biography. He fell in love with Mary Burns, an illiterate Irish worker who showed him the darker parts of the city on which his book is based. For the film Ganahl asked a young fierce lady from Salford to read extracts from the text on the site of the former Irish immigrant slums.
List of works
GOOGLE ENGELS: FREDERICK ENGELS
Acrylic paint on canvas, 220cm x 150cm
GOOGLE ENGELS: CLIP ART IMAGE FREDERICK ENGELS
Acrylic paint on canvas, 220cm x 150cm
GOOGLE ENGELS: RELATED IMAGES FREDERICK ENGELS
Acrylic paint on canvas, 220cm x 150cm Reading Friedrich Engels, The condition of the working class, 1842, Manchester 2011 Photographs 20 x 24 inches, film approx 4 hours KLASSE IN ENGLAND - A COLLECTION OF THE GERMAN EDITION OF FRIEDRICH ENGELS, THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS IN ENGLAND ACROSS 10 DECADES AS PURCHASED ONLINE FOR NOT MORE THAN 33 EUR A BOOK PLUS SHIPPING & HANDLING COSTS. 1913 / 2011: Die Lage Der Arbeitenden Klasse in England - Engels, 1913/ 2011 10 books and ink on papers JOHN LENNON WORKING CLASS HERO - A MUSIC LIBRARY CONSISTING OF 24 VINYLS PURCHASED ON EBAY.CO.UK FOR 0.99 GBP PLUS SHIPPING & HANDLING COSTS24 Vinyls and ink on papers WORKING CLASS: A PORTABLE LIBRARY CONSISTING OF 24 BOOKS PURCHASED ON EBAY.CO.UK FOR 0.99 GBP PLUS SHIPPING & HANDLING COSTS 24 books plus ink on papers THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS: SHOPPING ON EBAY.CO.UK: Vintage industrial factory cart, mill truck, table/prop, £355 plus postage and packing Vintage industrial factory cart, ink on paper, 8.5 x 11 inches
THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS: SHOPPING ON EBAY.CO.UK: Vintage Industrial TanSad Machinists Chair, £102.13 plus postage and packing Chair, ink on 3 papers, 8.5 x 11 inches THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS: SHOPPING ON EBAY.CO.UK: V2 antique wooden & metal wool 2 wooden and metal looms, ink on 3 papers, 8.5 x 11 inches THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS: SHOPPING ON EBAY.CO.UK: 1930's Mill Photo Industrial Steel Workers $9.95 plus postage and packing Photograph, ink on 3 papers, 8.5 x 11 inches THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS: SHOPPING ON EBAY.CO.UK: Industrial steel mill workers ironworkers print, $8.95 plus postage and packing Print, ink on 3 papers, 8.5 x 11 inches THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS: SHOPPING ON EBAY.CO.UK: Complete set antique metal printer blocks Printing blocks, ink on 3 papers, 8.5 x 11 inches FRIEDRICH ENGELS: THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS IN ENGLAND, Video/DVD, 7:12 FRIEDRICH ENGELS: THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS IN ENGLAND: Little Ireland, 1842-2011 Video/DVD
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