Document

Document consists of a single c-type photograph mounted on metal, leaning against a wall and placed on two small rectangular wooden supports and a metal object that are reconciled formally within a gallery context to question the representation of the 'thing' and the status and significance of the material of the work and its production. The image, taken in a corner of a failing steelworks in Reggio Emilia, Bologna, Italy, used by workers for relaxation, came from a series of images documenting makeshift objects transformed for use from discarded materials that forms part of an ongoing investigation into conditions of labour.

The work is one of a series documenting makeshift objects and discarded material transformed for use, that forms part of an ongoing investigation into the conditions of labour.

The production of this work in 2010 became the starting point for a new method of investigation in which Tallentire worked closely with an architect and a metal worker in an attempt to open up questions relating to skill, and languages of material production and translation. The process involved making meticulous drawings of the indeterminate metal object visible in the image, using only the photograph as a guide. The drawings were used to manufacture a replica of the object and so to draw attention to the processes of labour, production, usage and the ascribing of value.

The work addresses the conditions of labour in relation to the production and re-production of the object in the factory and in the studio. Document was produced for Tallentire’s solo show at The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA, 2010) and formed the basis of a new body of work employing the same processes of identification and collaboration. It was acquired for IMMA’s permanent collection.

The work was subsequently exhibited in the group show, ‘Vexed Endings’, Green and Red Gallery, Dublin 2012. As part of ‘This and other things’ it was reviewed in The Irish Times, March 2010.

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