An eleven-phase social practice project with artists experiencing homelessness, from street engagement through follow-up and payment delivery—the money transfer documented as part of the art. Culminating in a silent auction (anything but silent) at 19 Tory Street Open-Source Gallery on June 22, 2012: over 50 artworks auctioned, $1,500+ raised, hundreds in attendance, a reach of 192,000 through Radio New Zealand's “Vulnerable Art” documentary.
The creative brief given to each artist was seven prompts: What do you want? Love. What do you hate? Your past. Your present. Your future.—and then a blank. The blank is the most sophisticated element: after six guided prompts, pure openness. Whatever you need to make that isn't covered, make that.
The seven participating artists—Fee Fee, David, John, Lee, Tim, Toby, and James—are the ethical core of the entire practice. Fee Fee, a poet told all her life she had nothing to offer, sold art to strangers and bought a heater with the proceeds. Warren built an individual web page for each artist, written with the attention of a mid-career retrospective. He is not using these people as material. He is documenting them as artists—which they are.