![Vodoamcfegvcdp0vlypzg](https://axis-arts.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/user-uploads/user-12343/vodoamcfegvcdp0vlypzg.jpg?w=600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1709390247&s=32a29e7f6e31806554ffeeae633131b3)
How to put up a shelf (IV)
By
Joe Hancock
2011
![Vodoamcfegvcdp0vlypzg](https://axis-arts.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/user-uploads/user-12343/vodoamcfegvcdp0vlypzg.jpg?w=600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1709390247&s=32a29e7f6e31806554ffeeae633131b3)
Photo: Rachel Levine
- Architectural Art
- Sculpture
- Installation Art
- Live Art
- Abstract & Conceptual
- Urban Dynamics & Public Realm
- Sculpture
- Intervention
- Construction
- Work
- Labour
- Installation
- Performance
- Architecture
- Exhibition
Dimensions
360 x 600 x 45 cm
wood, steel brackets, concrete screws, tools, wall
‘How to put up a shelf (IV)’ comprises a series of shelves erected on the external wall of a building belonging to Glasgow School of Art. Each shelf functioned as a platform upon which I stood or knelt while erecting the next shelf. All necessary materials and tools were carried with me and stored on the shelves – once I left the ground I did not return until the last shelf was in place. In this way I became nomadic, self-sufficient, and increasingly vulnerable as I ascended the sequence of shelves, ending up exhausted, with no more materials, far from the ground.
The ‘How to put up a shelf’ series – background
Before I became an artist, I was an handyman. When people used to discover this about me, over half would ask the same question:
– So do you put up shelves and that sort of thing?
– Yes…
In order to discover why that question arose so frequently, I devised an experiment to investigate in detail how I put up a shelf.
I videoed myself putting up a shelf in my studio, and then reviewed the footage, recording all the decisions, no matter how small, that I could see myself making. Taking a decision to comprise a question and an answer (Q. Do I want that? + A. Yes. = D. I want that), I wrote what I believed were the questions I was asking during the process, e.g. ‘Is it level?’, ‘Is the drill set to the correct speed?’.
The resultant list of 553 questions became the first part of my open-ended preoccupation with shelves.
http://joe-hancock.com/shelf4
![Ye8w00drue6zjb5bjxyexq](https://axis-arts.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/user-uploads/user-12343/ye8w00drue6zjb5bjxyexq.jpg?w=600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1709390247&s=94bf2d1c5c7d85b61878ae686ee076be)
Photo: Rachel Levine
![No2pzkbxwueq2qvclzwawa](https://axis-arts.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/user-uploads/user-12343/no2pzkbxwueq2qvclzwawa.jpg?w=600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1709390246&s=c4e42508c8ef38160fb93b32a0fd79ae)
Photo: Rachel Levine
![Fboqcczy3ucw8qqcwuxxiw](https://axis-arts.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/user-uploads/user-12343/fboqcczy3ucw8qqcwuxxiw.jpg?w=600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1709390243&s=6a12c51dd2f5ee5bde21cb7eb7fc079f)
Photo: Rachel Levine
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