Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens : Horse and Sparrow
Horse and Sparrow is a grouping of works, including silkscreen prints, wall-sculptures and video, that share a common concern with the ways objectivity is performed in economic discourse. Initiated in 2008 by artists Ibghy & Lemmens, Horse and Sparrow develops through in-house research and field work, as well as through commissions and an Economist-in-Residence program.
Artist Biography
Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens live and work in Montreal and Vancouver. Their collaborative practice is concerned with re-articulating dominant systems of thought and forms of representation. Their work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at VU (Quebec City, 2010), Vernon Public Art Gallery (Vernon, 2010), Western Front (Vancouver, 2009), European Media Art Festival (Osnabrück, 2009), Labor K1 (Berlin, 2007), Owens Art Gallery (Sackville, 2007), Helen Pitt Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Belkin Satellite (Vancouver, 2007), and Trafó House of Contemporary Art, (Budapest, 2004).
Essay
If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.
- John Kenneth Galbraith
Horse and Sparrow is a
collaborative project that investigates the requirements for realism in the
study of economically-oriented social action. The project concerns itself with
producing visual and semantic devices aiming to improve the models, systems,
and narratives put forth by economists. However, in a discipline that has long
favoured axiomatism over empiricism, theoretical models over field work, and
the elegance of mathematical precision over accuracy, we are compelled to
wonder: Is the kind of realism required
still possible?
Although Horse and Sparrow provides
no definitive answers to this and other issues, the devices it does propose
should be considered for what they are: trials and errors down the road to a
revised - and revived economic theory. Once familiar with the tools developed
through the initiatives, we can only hope that economists will recognise their
utility and integrate them into practice. A secondary objective is to create
greater understanding and friendliness between the economic sciences and the
rest of society.
Initiated in 2008 by Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens, Horse and Sparrow develops through in-house research and field
work, as well as through commissions and an Economist-in-Residence program. So
far, the initiatives include tables, diagrams, wall-sculptures, videos, and
texts presented in academic journals and art publications, as well as at
conferences and art exhibitions.
Horse and Sparrow Initiatives
The
initiatives proposed by Horse and Sparrow
fall into three categories: A) designing tools and devices that communicate
economic models and processes, B) researching the representation of
economically-oriented social action, and C) producing pedagogical materials
concerning fundamental economic concepts. For convenience, they are grouped
below according to category of intervention.
Cat. A: Communication
Virtuous Circle I and Virtuous
Circle II
Titanic
Economic Sciences (as a branch of
psychology)
Cat. B: Research
Diagrams Concerning the
Establishment of a Law
Diagrams Concerning the
Representation of Human Time
Side Effects/The True North Strong
and Free
Cat. C: Pedagogy
Sesame Street Economics