Micah Lexier <█████████████████ >
To: Jeff Khonsary <████ ██████████ >, Kate Steinmann <████ ██████████ >
Cc: Josh Schwebel <privatejosh@gmail.com>
Hey Josh,
I wanted you to know that I reached out the Jeff and got an encouraging response from him last week. (See below).
I also asked him if it was okay to share his email with you and he agreed.
So, I think the best way to move forward is for you and Jeff and Kate to begin talking among yourselves and see if something can be worked out.
No need to cc me.
I hope you guys can figure out a way to work together.
Best,
Micah
On Feb 11, 2021, at 3:02 AM, Jeff Khonsary████ ██████████████ > wrote:Heya, Micah!Thanks so much for the email and apologies I missed your text today. It's been a bit mental these past few weeks… I took on a new gig and have been working away on 8 books right now. All a bit too much!This project os great and could be a good fit with a series of programming Fillip is investigating in conjunction with the publications of a massive book on Services (http://artarchives.net/artarchives/fraserservices.html).Our publication schedule is a bit crazy and booked now through end of 2021 (both Fillip and ND), but it would be nice to be in touch with Josh of course!Maybe Skype coffee soon?Staying safe in TO? Send pics of the new addition to the family!JeffOn Feb 8, 2021, at 9:23 AM, Micah Lexier <> wrote: Hey J,<Joshua Schwebel project.docx>I hope and trust all is good.Everything at██ ████████ is fine...as we got a lovely furry roommate a month ago. Her name is Minnow and she is a lovely, easy-going blue heeler mix. She is such a great companion.The reason I am writing is that there is a very interesting artist, Josh Schwebel, that I wanted to introduce you to. He makes super interesting work that is quite confrontational and questions museum and art gallery structures and systems. I first got introduced to his work when he did a project where he pretended to be me and applied for an exhibition as me and got the exhibition. Only later did he reveal that he was not me which upset the gallery, who got in touch with me. But when I heard about it I was thrilled as his critique rang true and I loved what he was doing. There are lots of layers to this project, which I can talk about with you if you want. He has since gone on to do other projects that are equally interesting, complex, including one where he used his artist fee to hire people to go into an artist run centre in order to inflate their gallery attendance so they would look better on their grants. And he just completed another project that deals with artist-run culture, entitled The Employee (see below).I am writing to invite you to a live online performance of my year-long project, The Employee, performed by Camille Valcourt-Synnott, and hosted by Forest City gallery.The performance will take place on Tuesday, January 26, from 10:30am - 1:30pm (EST/UTC-5).Conceptual artist Joshua Schwebel has hired a grant-writer whose task is to write funding applications on behalf of the Forest City gallery. "The Employee", the project’s title, is both a one-year employment contract and an artwork contributing to the structural support of the Forest City Gallery, an artist-run centre in London, Ontario, which, as one of Canada’s first artist-run centres, has been publicly funded for almost fifty years, yet only can support a single paid staff member. The delegated set of tasks comprising the artist’s project are for the Employee to apply for grants and obtain additional funding for the Forest City Gallery. These tasks at once the performance of an artwork and productive work benefiting the gallery. Schwebel successfully obtained project funding from the Canada Council for the Arts to hire the Employee as a delegated performer of the artwork. Any funds successfully earned by way of the project will be incorporated into the gallery’s operating budget, and potentially used to augment its future workforce. The work externalizes grant-writing and the administrative-economic tasks associated with the financial survival of the gallery, rendering this unseen work into a supplementary durational performance enacted peripheral to the exhibition space. The artist gratefully acknowledges support from the Canada Council for the Arts, without which this work would not be possible.Josh is looking to make a publication about this project (see attached document). I asked him who his dream publisher was and he said Fillip, so I offered to intrude you to him and his work, as I think it is a perfect fit. He has a vision for this publication, and I think you would be the perfect person to work with him on it, either as a Fillip publication or a New Documents publication.Here is a link to his website: https://joshuaschwebel.com/home.htmlThere are some interesting bits of writing on him and a great radio interview.If you want to contact him, he can be reached at privatejosh@gmail.comAnd I might give you a call to follow up.Best,MML