Flat Pack 001: Goddamn the Pusherman

The Showroom presents Goddamn the Pusherman, the first gallery based project by Flat Pack 001, a nomadic group of London based artists, curators and architects who work collectively, as well as in conjunction with a diverse range of individuals.

In 1998, Mark Beasley, Stephen Beasley and Tim Hutchinson established Flat Pack 001 to examine new ways of thinking about, and responding to recent developments in contemporary theory and practice. Through collective activity, Flat Pack 001 focus on re-assessing ways of representing and producing visually based art practice for a variety of different contexts.

For The Showroom, Flat Pack 001 developed a project that continues to renegotiate the boundaries between artist, curator and gallery. By inviting Eichelmann, Johnston, Muller and Rigo 00 to work with them on elements of Goddamn the Pusherman the group moved between being producers and commissioners of the project.

Goddamn the Pusherman offered visitors to the gallery a variety of possible opportunities for participation. One form of loose exchange between the audience and the group involved eliciting visitor's responses to the FLUFFERS questionnaire. This questionnaire has been devised by the artist Robert Johnston to provide lateral approaches to problem solving; in return the audience received a Flat Pack 001 bead bracelet or a free beer. By offering jewellery or beer in exchange for visitors' responses to the FLUFFERS, Flat Pack 001 questioned the role of art as commodity within a gallery space, alongside broader notions of social and cultural exchange.