REINIS PĒTERSONS

This is Office Art!

An excerpt from a short essay by 
Janis Jonevs 
March 2006 

Office art is the means for creative expression in meaningless objects, using only materials at hand at one's workplace – office supplies, inventory, client contributions, etc. Thus the office, which, as a perfectly rational environment has become a kind of symbol of the XXI century human alienation, acquires human (as irrational) traits and becomes cosier (as personalised). This benefits both parties – the employee avoids the contemporary capitalist rationality; the employer ensures that the employee feels more at ease at their workplace. Of course, it is always risky to attribute the status of art to something. But we dare to support it because, firstly, in the postmodern art scene, a crucial role is attributed to the fact of exhibiting, and secondly, this performance meets Oscar Wilde's terms for art – that it is, in its essence, completely pointless. However, its mediatory role, as mentioned, is immense. Rather than creating a new channel to broadcast information, the information itself adjusts the channels. The aim of adapting the means - a much more humane principle. 

Call for artists:

SURVIVE AT THE OFFICE - MAKE ART!

Brothers and sisters! Everyone who spends the best part of their lives in an office with a computer and a coffee machine! We're sure you sometimes do things that aren't supposed to be done at an office. Like making pictures out of pencil shavings, turning a roll of sticky tape into a snail or taping your co-workers legs together

That's called OFFICE ART.

The bare-bones definition: office art is a non-commisioned creative expression practiced in office space and using only materials available at an office.

The function: office art is a survival strategy. Just like people drink sand in the desert, we use all the stuff intended solely for the corporate profit to secretly create something beautiful and, foremost, pointless.

The call: We welcome all office artists to participate with any office art - 3D objects, happenings, installations, photo, audio and video footage etc.

If you have anything like that at your office or it's in the making, send photos and videos to

officeart101 [ a t ] gmail.com

Human and Nonhuman,

representatives of the Office Art Friends' Union

Office Art. Exhibition. Office Gallery of Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art. Co-curator Jānis Joņevs. Riga. Latvia. 2010 - 2011.