Group Red
Madison, Wisconsin
1980-1983
Group Red was founded by myself, and fellow student Royce Weatherly while at the University of Wisconsin. It was organized around concepts first proposed by the 1950's French art collective Situationist International - who's members advocated the use of derive
(drift) a kind of free association of artistic production by walking (and talking) along unused or seldom used city areas, and then allowing for unconscious thoughts to come forward. Group Red expanded to become a loose collective whose principle goals were, without preplanning, to create art in, or on site often only with found materials, and which would be abandoned after completion. Provocations included found sculpture, slogans, films, "paintings", stickers, etc. All works were anonymous, and fell into two general types Abandoned Sites ( works made with found objects on site), and Installations (constructed works placed in public locations).
Madison, Wisconsin
1980-1983
Group Red was founded by myself, and fellow student Royce Weatherly while at the University of Wisconsin. It was organized around concepts first proposed by the 1950's French art collective Situationist International - who's members advocated the use of derive
(drift) a kind of free association of artistic production by walking (and talking) along unused or seldom used city areas, and then allowing for unconscious thoughts to come forward. Group Red expanded to become a loose collective whose principle goals were, without preplanning, to create art in, or on site often only with found materials, and which would be abandoned after completion. Provocations included found sculpture, slogans, films, "paintings", stickers, etc. All works were anonymous, and fell into two general types Abandoned Sites ( works made with found objects on site), and Installations (constructed works placed in public locations).
Untitled (Manifesto)
Paint on found wood
Left in Public
1981
Broadsheets (Earn a Living...)
Paint on found bedsheets with Group Red sayings
left in public spaces
1982-1983
Untitled (Films on buildings)
Explicit Movies projected from automobile
onto buildings and walls
Winter 1980
Untitled (Found Stones/Collected)
found stones, table
@ 72" x 40" x 36"
1980
Untitled ( Wall)
Stone wall in abandoned garage
1982
Untitled (Train Cable)
Cable stretched through abandoned building from secure platform
onto freight car/ as train later moved away building walls collapsed
Steel cable
1981
Detail Untitled (Train Cable) reverse interior
Untitled ( Chairs)
Found chairs installed in abandoned buildings
1981
Untitled ( 100 Books)
100 found books nailed to trees, buildings, etc.
1981-1983
Untitled ( 100 Books)
100 found books nailed to trees, buildings, etc.
1981-1983
Untitled ( 5 holes, 5 things)
Collected found objects ( pennies, buttons, combs, candles, nails)
found and saved over two years and buried along train tracks
1981-1983
Untitled ( 5 Holes)
Untitled (5 Holes)
detail ( buttons)
Untitled (5 holes)
detail (combs)
Untitled ( Refuse Trail)
Garbage organized and set aflame
1982
Untitled (Shelter)
Found doors built as shelter and left on ice
Upon melting shelter disappears into lake
Winter 1982
Untitled (Democratic Structures)
Using empty construction sites and
found cement blocks works were created, and left on site,
the resulting works, Democratic Structures,
attempted to characterize various types of political and social hierarchies
Untitled (Democratic Structures)
Untitled (Democratic Structures)
Untitled (Democratic Structures)
Broadsheets (Meaning, Fear...)
Paint on found bedsheets with Group Red sayings
left in public spaces
1982-1983
The Art Furnace Needs More Fuel
Poster put up in Madison, Wisconsin
14" x 10"
1983