Only Boring People Get Bored

Ford’s latest body of work is an existentialist outing via assemblage, games and by-products of boredom. The installation 33 things to do before you are 10 will be shown as the result of his gallery residency as well as forming an integral part of the exhibition.

Only Boring People Get Bored is a confident and colour laden show, exploring how boredom can be inspiring and/or important in the production of the work. Existentialist notions of how we govern our lives as free individuals are of interest to Ford, and in particular how we fill our relatively short time in the world. To situate and understand Ford’s activity within the realm of boredom, to pose questions such as what and why these actions might have any value in being considered in this way, it is important to contextualise the meaning of boredom. Boredom could be said to be symptomatic of post-modernity: endless choice and freedom can cause us to fall into a state of numbness and aimlessness where we are not able to ignite our interests. The artist’s (actual or perceived) state of boredom leads him to create art almost as a means of killing time.

In this show Ford plays games (literally and conceptually) with the viewer and sets himself tasks and challenges to fulfil, to the pleasure or dismay of the audience. From a film of himself playing the game “Guitar Hero”, in which the viewer can only hear the pathetic clicks and twangs produced by the plastic, pseudo guitar; to piecing together ridiculously difficult mono-colour jigsaw puzzles; to completing the annoyingly repetitive game of “Bop It” and turning the results into a hovering, hypnotising beacon of the avant-garde. There is also an assemblage of Rubik’s Cubes and a new series of intensive works created by the raw boredom-relieving act of scribbling.