Temporary Services
Temporary Services is an art group of three people based in Chicago, Illinois, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), and Copenhagen, Denmark. Temporary Services has created art projects, public events, publications, and exhibitions since 1998.
On their web site, they state:"We champion public projects that are temporary, ephemeral, or that operate outside of conventional or officially sanctioned categories of public expression."
Temporary Services states a desire to not preference any type of activity or object as art, or any audience. They also work against the constructed link between aesthetics and ethics. They view art as activism, and carry on the traditions of situationism.
Temporary services became an Artadia awardee in the 2004 Chicago cycle.
A project between the Temporary Services and an incarcerated artist Angelo. Angelo produced a large body of work documenting in detail the inventions created by prisoners in the United States.
Prisoners' Inventions is a book, a travelling exhibition, and an ongoing collaborative project. This exhibit has been shown in the United States, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago was the location for one of Temporary Services' projects. The group surreptitiously added over 150 books designed by artists and others into the library's collection. The books are provided with all the same due dates, reference stickers purchased from the same provider used by the library itself.
This project was executed without any permission or input from the Chicago Public Library system. It was an effort to explore the boundaries of archival systems and make library patrons and library staff alike reexamine the notion of where books are categorized and placed in the library. Many books by artists are placed in the library's art reference area by default.
One book by artist and geographer Trevor Paglen contained a small motion detector to make sounds when a person walks by, effectively serving as a ghost book. Artists Rob Kelly and Zena Sakowski produced three books which folded out into a jacket, a pair of pants, and a balaclava. Books were also placed in the library by other writers, artists, and activist groups. Many of the books were eventually "accepted" by the library and re-categorized. They were given official library codes and placed into the library's system. Many of the books simply disappeared from the shelves after a few months.
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