From March 19 to April 23, 2011, Artcite Inc. (One of Windsor, ON’s finest Artist Run Centres) held an event 
called Artseen 13: Shelf Life. Artice Inc. Describes the event as follows:
“The shelves flew off the shelves here at Artcite, as artists from the Windsor and Detroit areas picked up 23″ x 9″ pine shelves to turn into original works for ARTSEEN 13 – SHELF LIFE.
60 artists have hung their shelf-creations on Artcite’s walls, working the idea and the materiality of “the shelf” in a show that pushes the boundaries of the creative process:
Objets d’art, objets d’artiste, Duchampian “ready-mades” (that make ‘dada’ proud), SHELVED ideas! Think OUTSIDE the shelf! Think ON the shelf! Think ABOUT the shelf!”
I entered the show under the alias, PSA (Pertinent Social Action). A fictional activist group that works within communities to do actions and spread the often urgent and politically charged ideologies of feminist artists, including: Jenny Holzer, Adrian Piper, Barbara Kruger and The Gorilla Girls. I anonymously reproduced the works of these artists in a uniform format, similar to that of a public service organization.
The work included a poster with that text from a Barbara Kruger piece, two documents from The Gorilla Girls, a “Calling Card” from Adrian Piper and buttons with Jenny Holzer “truisms” on them. All of the material was free to take. Though many of the audience members needed to be encouraged to take part of the piece with them.
PSA (Pertinent Social Action) from Stephen Surlin on Vimeo.
