Oreet Ashery: Party for Freedom (Artangel Project) May - June 2013

Host your own free work of performance art, courtesy of artist Oreet Ashery and his Party for Freedom. This is a new project from Artangel, an independent contemporary art organisation responsible for, among other things, a life-size inflatable sculpture of Stonehenge, and a London flat encrusted on every interior surface with copper sulphate crystals. Members of the public wishing to invite the Party to their venue (it could be your house, or office...) should visit this page for instructions. A dedicated Party Line Operator will then get in touch to discuss the request. Demand is likely to be very high.

MURDOCH, Kate '10x10' (2012)

Through her installation of 100 objects, each one free for you and I to take on condition of exchange for another left in its place, artist Kate Murdoch explores ideas around trade and currency - what is an object worth to you? How much do you want it and what are you prepared to give in return? 10x10 will be on display from 19-22 September as part of Coastal Currents, a festival of visual arts in Hastings  & St Leonards, East Sussex.

www.coastalcurrents.org.uk

www.katemurdochartist.com/ten_by_ten.html

Image © Kate Murdoch

Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012

GI, as this otherwise slightly wordy festival is known, opens today and looks like it may be rich pickings for those seeking to add to their Priceless Collections... One option is to temporarily augment your collection by borrowing a work for 3 days through the Art Lending Library, a collaboration between Market Gallery and Walker & Bromwich. Alternatively you could seek out The Glasgow Sunday Schools project by PC favourite Ruth Ewan which will include some of her poster works and a new publication.

Also, though not strictly speaking a thing to take away, a special mention has to be made of the brilliant Jeremy Deller and his new work Sacrilege, an inflatable replica of Stonehenge sited on Glasgow Green - you can't take it away, but I am assuming it's free to bounce, and that to me sounds priceless!

For more information about this and the many other exhibitions and events during GI visit their website - http://www.glasgowinternational.org

LIVERSIDGE, Peter - "Proposal for Low" Royal Festival Hall, April 3 2012

If he had not grown up to be an artist, I am fairly sure Peter Liversidge would have been in a band. He loves music intensely, it features frequently in his work, and among his most favourite groups are Low, an unlikely sounding but acclaimed Mormon indie rock outfit from Duluth, Minnesota. They will play the Royal Festival Hall on April 3 2012 and Liversidge has been invited by the band to create the backdrop for the show. He will also be giving away 500 free copies of the Proposal for Low on the night, in an envelope marked 'Proposal for Low'.

Availability: Limited, edition of 500 available at the event

FOWLER, Luke @ Inverleith House, Edinburgh - 12 February to 29 April 2012

Currently to be found within Luke Fowler's new exhibition of photographs and film at Inverleith House, Edinburgh is the poster stack illustrated here.

Availability: Free, until exhibition closes on 29 April 2o12

Photograph by Michael Wolchover.

FERRIS, James (b. 1980)

Okay, so this is not technically speaking free, but bearing in mind the prices to be found in many London galleries, it's near as dammit, and spectacularly generous on the part of artist and gallery. A new exhibition, '50/50' by James Ferris, opens at Limoncello gallery in London on Thursday 26 January 2012 comprising 200 original paintings made between 2008 and 2011.

The first person through the door on the opening night will be able to choose any painting they wish for £1. The second person to cross the threshold may make their selection and pay £2. And so on, until the two hundredth work is sold for £200 and the exhibition is sold out. If the paintings were terrible, that would perhaps take the shine off this a little, but having had a quick look at the preview images here, I am very sad that I can't get there to nab one of my favourites for myself. If you live anywhere near London, I suggest you make a date in your diary now, and don't be late!

All images Copyright of the Artist, with thanks to Limoncello, London

LIVERSIDGE, Peter (b. 1973)

All of Peter Liversidge's work, his exhibitions and projects, begin life as a series of proposals. Hand-typed whilst sitting at his kitchen table, he taps out an astounding array of suggestions that range from the sublime to the ridiculous, taking in the very ordinary ("I propose to stand still") along the way. Many of these will go on to become performances, art works and ephemeral actions - and many others will never exist beyond the printed page. Liversidge's work has a natural generosity and most of his exhibitions and projects involve gifts and free multiples for his audience - in the past this has included books of his proposals, hand-etched gin glasses, cd compilations from his extensive record collection, embossed bank notes, ice cream, kebabs, and much more besides.

Peter's first substantial exhibition in America opens in a couple of weeks and I am assured that for anyone hoping to add to their Priceless Collection there will be treats to be had.

Peter Liversidge Where We Begin at the Sean Kelly Gallery, 528 West 29th Street, New York NY 10001 from 9 December, 2011 until 28 January, 2012

Photography: Jason Wyche, New York. Courtesy: Sean Kelly Gallery, New York

GONZALEZ-TORRES, Felix (b. Cuba, 1957-1996)

The late, great American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres remains the reigning king of the takeaway, be it his poster stacks or piles of sugar candies. You can currently help yourself to one of his beautiful monochrome posters if you visit Constellations, an exhibition of four brilliant artists at The Cornerhouse Gallery in Manchester, UK until 11 September, 2011.

http://www.cornerhouse.org/art/art-exhibitions/constellations

http://www.felixgonzalez-torresfoundation.org/

EWAN, Ruth 'All things are common (Stephanie)' poster stack (2008)

Ruth Ewan, 'All Things Are Common (Stephanie)' 2008

A stack of 2,500 free posters first presented at Liste, Basel.

Ruth Ewan's (b.1980, Aberdeen) work engages brilliantly with social politics, protest and propaganda, unearthing forgotten heroes and idiosyncratic historical laws and customs to generate a deeper understanding of our present attitudes to radical ideas and social justice. Not heeding the usual warnings, she has worked on numerous projects with young children and small animals, of which this beautifully produced poster is one example. Several versions of this print have been made, each time the image is coloured in by a different child and reproduced as a free poster stack. The first version 'All things...(Stephanie)' was distributed at the Liste Art Fair in Basel in 2008, and again at Sandra Buergel gallery in 2009. Subsequently, three different versions were made for each of the touring venues of the exhibition in which the work was included, Rank: Picturing the Social Order 1516 -2009, which originated at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art - for exhibition information visit http://www.ngca.co.uk/home/default.asp?id=147

The work itself is derived from a copy of an early 17th century engraving satirising the Anabaptist belief in the sharing of common goods. The image, re-drawn by Ewan, has been coloured by a 12 year old girl from Buckhaven, Scotland. Each time it is shown again, Ewan specifies that the work should be re-coloured by a different child. Socialists, including Friedrich Engels, adopted Thomas Müntzer, a German Anabaptist and rebel leader of the Peasants’ War, as an icon of early class struggle. They believed Müntzer was a revolutionary who utilised biblical language to articulte his radical ideology and promote a new egalitarian society. One of his battle cries was omnia sunt communia, all things are common.

Free and wide distribution of her work is an important aspect of Ewan's practice. This and several of her other booklets and multiples are available by request through her website: www.ruthewan.com

PRICE, Seth "8-4 9-5 10-6 11-7"

Seth Price's work as an artist often concerns itself with modes of distribution, the commodification of art works and other objects by society, and ways of evading or subverting these norms. Distributed by the ICA as part of their exhibition Dispersion held in 2008 (titled, incidentally, by Curator Polly Staple after an essay of the same name by Price), 8-4 9-5 10-6 11-7 was available as a free download for the period of the exhibition, and can still be found on the ICA website by following the link below. According to the exhibition information, "8-4 9-5 10-6 11-7 is part of Price’s ongoing series Title Variable which focuses on music as a mutating resource, and is made up of an eight hour continuous mix of dance music from the last thirty years. The title refers to the eight hour working day, whether one is in, say, a unionised labour job (8-4), a typical office job (9-5), the cultural world (10-6) or running a boutique (11-7)."

Follow this link to the download:

http://www.ica.org.uk/18772/ICA-Exhibitions-clips-and-media/Seth-Price-84-95-106-117.html

ALYS, Francis - 'The Loop' Tijuana-San Diego 1997, postcard, unlimited edition

This postcard was found at Francis Alÿs' brilliant - but soon to end - exhibition, A Story of Deception at Tate Modern (until 5 September, 2010). It was first produced in 1997 when the artist was invited to participate at InSite, an exhibition held in the border territory between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. He used his commission fee to make a journey, from Tijuana down through South America, to Australia, across the Pacific Rim, north through Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul, before crossing to Canada and heading south through America back down to San Diego - in essence, traveling from Tijuana to its American neighbour without ever setting foot across the US/Mexican border. This ostensibly absurd and excessive action was undertaken to call attention to both the difficulties faced by Mexican citizens trying to visit the US, and also the extravagances of the art world at the time, flying here there and everywhere to attend the explosion of biennials. This small postcard, taken away from the exhibition by many thousands of hands, carries Alÿs' ideas out into the world spreading them far and wide.

A number of other extraordinary film works which are included in the exhibition have been made available by the artist for free to the public who can download them from his website:

www.francisalys.com

NAUMAN, Bruce - 'Body Pressure' (1974) poster print, unlimited edition

Incongruous baby pink in the subterranean gloom of DIA Beacon’s vast dungeon-like galleries devoted to Bruce Nauman, sits a thick stack of wafer thin poster sheets. They are copies of Body Pressure (1974), a brilliant early work which invites you to recreate one of Nauman's seminal performance pieces. Having made this discovery and perhaps peeled a poster of your own from the pile, you will begin to notice, when you resurface into DIA’s immense airy galleries above, many familiar flashes of pink, rolled or folded, peeking out of scruffy bags, tucked under armpits, crooked in elbows, or clasped tightly in hands. Then you can imagine each of your fellow visitors returning to the privacy of their own home and following the typed-out instructions which sign off with the unforgettable caution:

Availability: permanent display

www.diabeacon.org

STEZAKER, John - '18 Unassisted Readymades', MONO Issue #3, quarterly newspaper, edition of 3000

Perhaps not strictly speaking an art work, nonetheless, this beautifully produced newspaper edition deserves its place here. MONO is a quarterly paper dedicated to publishing visual essays, each issue selected by invited artists and curators. Issue #3 is devoted to artist John Stezaker and reproduces 18 enigmatic portrait photographs.

Availability: free, published in an edition of 3,000.

I collected my copy from The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh.

See the website for other locations where MONO will be available periodically.

www.monopaper.co.uk

CONSUEGRA, Nicolás - 'Cartografia Textual' (2009), offset print on paper, 125 x 90 cm

Cartografia Textual (2009) is a vast printed map of the world which has so far been presented as a free multiple within two exhibitions, Vamos (curated by Sonia Becce) at Galería Nueveochenta, Bogotá (July 23 to August 27, 2009), and VI Salón de Arte Bidimensional at Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá (December 5, 2009 to February 7, 2010).

Devoid of all the usual territorial markings carving up land and sea, Consuegra's map leaves only the names of each country floating in an ocean of undelineated white, the sole clue to their geographical reach - or their political and economic power - being the map's various original font sizes which he faithfully preserves.

Nicolás Consuegra is an artist and graphic designer who lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia. For images of the project and more information visit:

www.nicolasconsuegra.com/details.php?project=worldmap

www.tangramagrafica.com

McALPINE, Elizabeth - 'Words and Music (Headlines: Thursday July 15 2010)'

Hand-typed onto fragile copy paper, this free limited edition print is signed and numbered by the artist and accompanies a new work first performed during the Barbican Art Gallery's Words event on July 15th 201o, an evening of poetry and artistic interventions relating to the current exhibition Surreal House. For those who missed the performance, in which 5 pianists played the days' headlines on one piano following a score made by transposing the newspapers headlines' letters, numbers and punctuation marks into musical notes, the artist plans to repeat it in the future, possibly at The Whitechapel Art Gallery later this year.

Availability: copies may still be available at The Barbican, possible re-edition at future performances.

For more information visit the artists' website:

www.elizabethmcalpine.com