The Annotated Reader Exhibition

The Annotated Reader  was conceived by Ryan Gander and Jonathan P. Watts as an exhibition-as-publication, or publication-as-exhibition, consisting of 281 texts selected and annotated by invited creatives, artists, academics, writers, musicians, and designers. Ryan Gander is an artists who exhibits internationally and has studios in Suffolk and London, and Jonathan P. Watts is a writer and critic who was born in Great Yarmouth and returns regularly to visit his family. Contributors to the project include Sir Antony Gormley, Marina Abramovic, Fiona Banner, Richard Deacon and Susan Hiller.

The invitation was straightforward. "Imagine," they wrote, "you've missed your last train - what single piece of writing would you want with you for company in the small hours? Perhaps this text transformed your thinking. It might be a mantra continually returned to. Perhaps it is a text you felt should be read by younger generations or that you wish you'd encountered as a student."

Annotation would add a further layer to the text, demonstrating and suggesting ways of reading, displaying thought, complicating the relationship between image and text, reading and looking. Even if three people selected the same text no contribution would be the same.

By collecting the annotated texts they hoped to assemble a teaching resource to be freely shared. It also forms a unique snapshot of what hundreds of inspiring and creative people throughout the world are preoccupied with in 2018. Like Harrison and Wood's Art in Theory 1900-2000 or Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalogue ('Stay Hungry Stay Foolish'), in totality their hope is that The Annotated Reader will suggest a curriculum, an index, and an ethics.

Visitors are free to take contributions from the wall and assemble their own compendium. The complete reader is available on USB, to be printed or read on screen, from the vending machine located at 167a King Street, alongside Great Yarmouth Contemporary; Art, Craft & Design Fair, at the cost price of £5.

The Annotated Reader is organised by local arts organisation originalprojects; as part of their work for Making Waves Together, and will be on at the same time as Great Yarmouth Contemporary; Art, Craft and Design Fair, that will show some of the best art craft and design from across Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and beyond, at 167a King Street.

Press release issued on behalf of Original Projects November 19, 2018