Category Archives: ebay

Jun 08 2012
Leave a comment
ebay, progression, Uncategorized

Ebay items listed

So the ebay items are up and running now and you can see them all here. Some things are very highly priced but that is because I valued everything at the lowest possible price I could part with them for. It would seem the most precious items to me are the photos and letters etc that I know I could never replace. I understand that in reality it is highly unlikely that anyone will actually bid on any of this stuff as it means nothing to them and could be seen as overpriced, but isn’t that all part of it? I am interested to see if any of the items get any interest for other reasons!

 

All of the items have extremely detailed descriptions with a lot of personal stuff in them. This is sort of strange for me and I feel a little scared leaving myself so open and vulnerable for all to judge but this as become part of the work and in order for it to really mean anything and to be authentic it needs to have this I guess.

May 24 2012
Leave a comment
ebay, Presentation

ebay items

So I’ve put all my items onto ebay. I’ve set them so that they are active for a week and the are at staggered times but all go on sale on the 8th June – after 5pm, so they will all be active throughout the whole time the degree show is on. I can’t put a link up yet to ebay as the items aren’t active yet they only show on my own ebay and not for general public, which will go live when the items go on sale. I have 31 ebay listings, although there are more items I have put some of them together in groups as they are related and wouldn’t work on there own! I have some screen shots to show exactly what I have done.

 

 

 

So this is how the listings look on my ebay, and is sort of similar to how they will look when they are active. I have chosen to wait til the show to have them active so it runs alongside like a commentary if you like. It is also a statement on the act of selling art. I’m taking that away from the institution and putting it in my own hands. Who is to say how art can be sold?

I have written descriptions for each of the 31 listings, they are each a description of how I got the item, where it has been and a memory of the item, or what it makes me remember.

I’ve decided to call the listings Memories. For Sale? as a sort of question, as if to say these are not items but memories, can I in fact sell them as that??

 

 

The start price I have given each thing/memory is the price I feel I could just about allow somebody else to own these memories for. I have taken time over each and pondered their importance to me and how I would feel to not have them anymore, and at what cost I could deal with that.

This has become very personal since I have listed all the items. Some of the memories are so personal, it scares me that some people may read them! For instance in my leopard print notebook there is a really sad diary entry type thing which is highly personal which I have exposed.

For the show I think I may have to keep the monitor which is next to the installation for the assessment, so I can show the ebay listings, otherwise I am worried no-one will know it is real?

May 23 2012
Leave a comment
ebay, Presentation, progression

Deadline Looming

The deadline is tomorrow and I am playing around with my boxes. I have several options of how to use them.

What we have here are the different viable options of using the boxes. We have the semi circle – interesting but I’m worried about blocking off the artists whos work is behind too much, the separated stacks – look interesting but may not be enough room to walk around them properly so could be too awkward, plus there is more likelihood of them being unstable like this. The pile’o'boxes – this looks the most sculptural, however I am not trying to make it look sculptural and this is the one people are least likely to look at the items or be able to touch them, and finall we have the corridor shelf boxes – this is the one I think I will go with because its not too much of an intrusion to the others work in the space, it gives a nice space where people can look at the stuff in the boxes, I can clearly show a post label next to the item here and you can see how I might tape the boxes and send them off to their new ebay owner!

May 01 2012
Leave a comment
ebay, Presentation, progression, Uncategorized

1st look ebay

So I have decided that to get my ideas across I need to do more than just show these items in some sort of installation. I was toying with the idea of a silent auction, so making an auction catalogue and having a box for the degree show that people could put bids on for the different things, but this all seemed a bit too stuffy, and then it hit me, why not use eBay?

The idea being that I use my childhood items to show how nostalgia affects us all, that we all attach memories to material things, and they can be used to evoke these memories, we see them and they help us remember. Each item can have its own anecdote, some memory that is jogged when we see it.

I’m interested to explore the concept that everything can always be bought, if the price is high enough. Even memories. Are keeping these things clinging onto the past? Is this about me letting go? Without these items will my memories diminish?

I think the best way for me to do this will be to have a high reserve, or starting bid, it needs to be the lowest amount i’ll be willing to let these things go for. I want it to be more like a memory the person will be bidding on, everything that the item stands for, not just the material thing, but all the attachments I have to them.

It needs to be simple and straight forward. Maybe I can show somehow that it is more than the item for sale? Perhaps in the description I have a description of what the item means to me, some sort of anecdotal tale.

I’ve just photographed them on a black background to be quite ‘eBay’ with the whole thing. I was going to do it on a white background, but most of the items showed up a lot better on the black. I’m going to keep my language very simple in the description too, friendly and casual as many keep it on eBay.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.