Toby’s work brings Helix Arts’ partnership with Newcastle University’s Institute for Creative Arts Practice to life with his research into high quality arts co-production in participatory settings.
Toby Phips Lloyd toured Between Eating and Sleeping across the North of England. It is part of an ongoing project that aims to question public attitudes towards work (paid and unpaid labour), the value of free-time and whether Universal Basic Income might enable us to become more active citizens.
For the duration of the exhibition Toby inhabited the gallery space, painting the following questions on to the wall by hand:
- What did you want to be when you were growing up?
- What gets you out of bed in the morning?
- What would you do if you had a year off?
Visitors were invited to respond to the questions and to discuss their answers while he worked in the gallery space.
The amount of time it took Toby to complete the paintings was recorded each day and displayed as part of the exhibition. The hours were translated into a monetary sum using the minimum wage and living wage to calculate the cost. This information was used to create a time/ value scale, raising questions about whether more could have been achieved in this time or with the money the activity would have cost.
For example, the questions could have been printed and installed as vinyl lettering by a local business for £x and this would have freed Toby up to engage in other activities which could possibly be considered to be more productive. A series of events accompanied the exhibition including discussion based workshops, a film screening and an audiovisual performance in collaboration with musicians Yol & Posset.
The exhibition was funded by Arts Council England, Grants for the Arts.
To learn more see Toby’s website: http://tobyphipslloyd.co.uk/project/between-eating-and-sleeping/
