Planking Piece (after Charles Ray)
Found photography.
Presented as installation with 538 images in various sizes
or as a slide show: 139 min.
Planking is an activity consisting of lying face down with both arms along the sides of the body (mimicking a wooden plank). Planking can include lying on a flat surface or balancing on top of something. Finding unusual locations and sharing the pictures online is an important part of the activity.
The concept for planking is simple, which allows for almost anyone, anywhere – without regards of class, gender, age or ethnicity to make this performance. There are thousands of images online with people planking the selection in this work takes the viewer on a trip around the world, to popular tourist destinations, offices and private homes. Some images are from spectacular places taken with great risk while others are made within the safety of one’s own backyard. The images unconsciously mimics the documentation of conceptual performances made by Dennis Oppenheim, Erwin Wurm or Charles Ray – whose performance Plank Piece this work has adopted its title from.
My interest in this phenomena is rooted in the connection that I see to performance art but also that fact that this occurred very vividly between 2009-2011 and then it suddenly became fashionable, disappeared and was forgotten.
One day I’ll make a book with these images.
