Nir Segal’s research, the Flat Diamond, investigate the proposition to consider value as an artwork. The basis of this research is in the belief that value is an artificial human construct which mostly is practiced passively as it is conceived as inherited. In his research, Segal asks to consider value as an active creative process, and as such it is constructed through collaborative engagement, in the forms of conversation, performance, and events. Segal primarily positions himself as the inviter, facilitator and carer who works towards establishing the platforms in which these events of value and exchange happen. Recently he has been exploring the creative power of proposition as a method for making value. Value for itself is a proposition which needs an encounter for its realisation. A proposition holds within it the possibility to consider the actualisation of something without the need to produce it. It gives an economic way to initiate a dialogue which will then become the work itself. Some propositions remain as written works, some become an invitation in the form of paintings, titles, and dialogues and other are performed as a mean to invite and engage the audience in the collaborative process of making value.
Expanding on this ongoing research Segal’s residency theme, Free, initiate his exploration of the notion of free and the concept of freedom as a platform for exchange and research. Value, as mentioned before and according to Segal, is based in an event and through dialogue. The time and space of the residency will be used as a studio where invitations for events, dialogues and experiments are composed with the aims to collaborate and expand on ideas such as value, belief, knowledge, authorship, and power.
As a term, Free derives from a sense of ability, liberty, exemption of duty and release from restrain. It is between those four that the act of value making is performed. When identifying the power of creativity in the construction of value we can locate the term Free as a beginning point. It puts value at ground zero, in a level it has not been formed yet or where it exists beyond definitions.
Free acts as a proposition that demands, asks, either or invites a recipient to estimate and construct a new value appreciation. It exposes the artificiality of value as well as proposes a sense of creativity in it. Free can also bring up some suspicion which is based on the disbelief in something that exist beyond value. The notion of suspicion is in the belief that nothing is free which implies that we are not free. Such notion is what position value as a strong political power.
Bio
Born 1980, Nir Segal lives and works in London. Segal graduated with a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2008, MFA from Bezalel Academy of the Arts in 2012 and currently pursuing a PhD as a research artist at the Slade School of Fine Art. Segal’s works explore concepts of value, myth, and belief through collaborations, invitations, facilitations and other practices of hospitality and participation. Amongst his shows: Two Work at RawArt Gallery in Tel Aviv (2016), Gentle War at 100 Tonson Gallery in Bangkok, Gifted at the Artists residence Gallery in Herzlyia (2011) and Sit-You-Ate at the National Gallery in Bangkok (2010)
