The seeds of “Free For All” can be traced back as far as two years ago, before there even was a Temporary Services, when Brett Bloom talked to me about a show he wanted to do using card tables as a system for displaying work. There would be painting stations and food stations; coffee on one table, sculptures or video on the next. Brett accumulated over a dozen cheap used card tables for this project but for some forgotten reason, it never materialized. Another abandoned project that we had planned to work on together involved a carefully curated event involving many artists operating under the guise of a one day long garage sale. One aspect of this project would be a table of free literature combining printed projects by artists mixed in with other materials from various organizations and the community. Gradually as that idea began to dissolve, the free literature table split apart and became it’s own entity which is this show. “Free For All” became a project that I had a particular personal attachment to and wanted to curate alone, but many of its key ideas can be traced back to discussions over the past two years. We found a use for those card tables.

The most important criteria for the inclusion of works in this show, was that the objects should be portable, self-contained vehicles for ideas, expression, thought, images, or sound and that they should be available or provided in significant quantity. Quantities were determined based on what was affordable or possible for the artists to donate, what I could obtain for free, or what I could copy or reproduce on my own. Artists were compensated for their donations of work through an exchange of free work by most of the other participants. As the number of artists increased, I asked participants to try to donate more, in order to provide for both the public and each other.

The many religious tracts that are included in this show were obtained by writing letters to their publishers. This aspect of the show was curated by reviewing hundreds of different titles and then carefully selecting certain ones for inclusion. In my letters to these organizations I stated that I could not provide money, but would freely distribute the materials that I requested. At times they sent numerous alternate tracts that I did not request. I have included only the titles I asked for and this show will fulfill my promise of free distribution. The abundance of this type of material reflects the generosity of the publishers, and my enthusiasm for the tract form. Tracts remain an excellent means of communication and expression that should be studied for their potential as a highly affordable artists’ medium. I do not care about their religious preaching at all, but I respect and admire their often ingenious use of language, graphics, and design.

Certain individuals (known, and unknown) are represented by work that I duplicated for inclusion without their knowledge. My criteria for including this often highly provocative work was in part, that it was meant for the eyes of others - that it was sent out, copied, distributed, taped to a pole, or posted on a wall in order to reach a larger audience. Nothing that I felt would invade the privacy of any individual in a way that was undesired, or that would make public something harmful to a specific person that was meant to stay private has been included.

It is only fitting that a project that exists to give things away for free, would not have been possible without the charity of many people. Some artists that normally sell their work, donated a great number of similar or identical objects to be given away through this show. It is common for artists who produce multiples to trade these works with each other, but I have asked for something more, and everyone has been exceedingly generous.

The following people donated labor of some sort, suggested artists, provided contact assistance for people I wanted to invite but did not know personally, made suggestions, donated found materials that were either reproduced, or procured in larger quantities from their original source, or otherwise volunteered their knowledge and services to help to make this possible:

Brett Bloom, Serena Lander, Nance Klehm, Oli Watt and Associated Colleges Midwest, Jim Duignan, Doro Boehme, Sally Alatalo, Dana Sperry, Lora Lode, Kevin Kaempf, Lillian Yvonne, Basia Mosinski, R House Press, John Gustafson, Salem Collo-Julin, Matti Allison, Mason McCormick, Jefferson Root, Julia Friedman, Craig Smith, Anthony Elms, Laurie Palmer, Lis Goldschmidt, Nicole Repack, Tom Choat, Virginia Montgomery, Walter Andersons, Mia Brownell, and Julian Rothenstein.