Goldin+Senneby is the framework for collaboration between Swedish artists Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby. Since 2004, Goldin+Senneby have initiated projects that explore juridical, financial and spatial constructs through notions of the performative and the virtual. Through actions and theoretical pursuits, they interrogate the mythologies created by virtual economies and fictional personae. In their recent body of work, Headless (2007-), they approach the sphere of offshore finance and its production of virtual space through legal code. Since 2010 their work has focused on The Nordenskiöld Model, an experiment in theatrical finance, in which they attempt to reenact the anarcho-alchemical scheme of eighteenth-century alchemist August Nordenskiöld on the financial markets of today. Goldin+Senneby’s current project, M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions), uses the exhibition infrastructure as laboratory for developing algorithmic trading models. Mirroring the design of the algorithm intended to detect activity in the stock market that indicates early stages of possible mergers and acquisitions, Goldin+Senneby combine the speculative nature of both theatre and finance and the precarious labour conditions that characterize late capitalism. Jakob Senneby and Simon Goldin received MFA degrees from Stockholm’s Royal University College of Fine Arts in 2004 and 2007, respectively. In parallel with his artistic work, Goldin has studied management at the Stockholm School of Economics. Recent solo exhibitions include Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2013), Artspace NZ, Auckland (2013), NAK, Aachen (2012), Kadist, Paris (2010) and The Power Plant, Toronto (2008). Group exhibitions include Tate Liverpool (2013), 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2011). Residencies include: Headlands, San Francisco (2012); SALT, Istanbul (2012); Kadist, Paris (2010); Gasworks, London (2008); IASPIS, Stockholm (2007).
Geoff Mann teaches political economy and economic geography at Simon Fraser University, where he directs the Centre for Global Political Economy. His research concerns the political economy of capitalism and focuses on the ways in which macroeconomic governance in liberal democracy is affected by economic and ecological crisis. His book Our Daily Bread: Wages, Workers and the Political Economy of the American West (UNC, 2007) won the Paul Sweezy Prize from the American Sociological Association and the Michael S. Harrington Award from the American Political Science Association, and his writing on capitalism has appeared in New Left Review and Historical Materialism, among other journals. In the Long Run We are All Dead: Keynesianism, Political Economy & Revolution will be published by Verso in January 2017.
Marianne Nicolson (Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw, Musga̱maḵw Dzawada̱’enux̱w First Nations, b. 1969) is an artist and activist of the Musga̱maḵw Dzawada̱’enux̱w Nations who are part of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw (Kwak’wala speaking peoples) of the Northwest Coast. She is trained in both traditional Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw forms and culture and contemporary gallery and museum-based practice. Her practice is multi-disciplinary, encompassing photography, painting, carving, video, installation, monumental public art, writing and speaking. She works as a Kwakwaka’wakw cultural researcher and historian, as well as an advocate for Indigenous land rights. She holds a BFA from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (1996), an MFA (2000), MA in Linguistics and Anthropology (2005) and PhD in Linguistics and Anthropology with a focus on space as expressed in the Kwak’wala language (2013) all from the University of Victoria. Solo exhibitions include the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2008); Artspeak, Vancouver (2006); Esquimalt Municipal Hall (2004); Thunder Bay Art Gallery (2002); National Indian Art Centre, Hull (2001); Campbell River Public Art Gallery (2000) and Or Gallery, Vancouver (1992). Group exhibitions include the 17th Biennale of Sydney (2020); the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2020); the Vancouver Art Gallery (2019-20); the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2018-19) and the National Museum of the American Indian, New York (2017-19), among others. Major monumental public artworks are situated in her home territory of the Musga̱maḵw Dzawada̱’enux̱w First Nation, Vancouver International Airport, the Canadian Embassy in Amman, Jordan and the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France.
Following Nicolson’s Hexsa’a̱m: To Be Here Always, a 2019 project with the Belkin that functioned as research, material, media, testimony and ceremony to challenge the western concept that the power of art as limited to the symbolic, This Is An Emergency Broadcast (2023) is another moment to amplify Indigenous tradition.
Goldin+Senneby is the framework for collaboration between Swedish artists Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby. Since 2004, Goldin+Senneby have initiated projects that explore juridical, financial and spatial constructs through notions of the performative and the virtual. Through actions and theoretical pursuits, they interrogate the mythologies created by virtual economies and fictional personae. In their recent body of work, Headless (2007-), they approach the sphere of offshore finance and its production of virtual space through legal code. Since 2010 their work has focused on The Nordenskiöld Model, an experiment in theatrical finance, in which they attempt to reenact the anarcho-alchemical scheme of eighteenth-century alchemist August Nordenskiöld on the financial markets of today. Goldin+Senneby’s current project, M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions), uses the exhibition infrastructure as laboratory for developing algorithmic trading models. Mirroring the design of the algorithm intended to detect activity in the stock market that indicates early stages of possible mergers and acquisitions, Goldin+Senneby combine the speculative nature of both theatre and finance and the precarious labour conditions that characterize late capitalism. Jakob Senneby and Simon Goldin received MFA degrees from Stockholm’s Royal University College of Fine Arts in 2004 and 2007, respectively. In parallel with his artistic work, Goldin has studied management at the Stockholm School of Economics. Recent solo exhibitions include Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2013), Artspace NZ, Auckland (2013), NAK, Aachen (2012), Kadist, Paris (2010) and The Power Plant, Toronto (2008). Group exhibitions include Tate Liverpool (2013), 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2011). Residencies include: Headlands, San Francisco (2012); SALT, Istanbul (2012); Kadist, Paris (2010); Gasworks, London (2008); IASPIS, Stockholm (2007).
Shelly Rosenblum is Curator of Academic Programs at the Belkin. Inaugurating this position at the Belkin, Rosenblum’s role is to develop programs that increase myriad forms of civic and academic engagement at UBC, the wider Vancouver community and beyond. Rosenblum received her PhD at Brown University and has taught at Brown, Wesleyan and UBC. Her awards include fellowships from the Center for the Humanities, Wesleyan University and a multi-year Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Department of English, UBC. She was selected for the Summer Leadership Institute of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University (2014). Her research interests include issues in contemporary art and museum theory, discourses of the Black Atlantic, critical theory, narrative and performativity. Her teaching covers the 17th to the 21st centuries. She remains active in professional associations related to academic museums and cultural studies, attending international conferences and workshops, and recently completing two terms (six years) on the Board of Directors at the Western Front, Vancouver, including serving as Board President. At UBC, Rosenblum is an Affiliate of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.
Goldin+Senneby, M&A, 2013. Exhibition view: ArtspaceNZ, Auckland, 2013. Photo: Sam Hartnett
Speculation in Art and Finance Symposium gathers artists Goldin+Senneby and Marianne Nicolson along with geographer Geoff Mann in preparation for our upcoming exhibitions To refuse/To wait/To sleep and M&A. Opening at the Belkin in January 2017, these projects will bring together artists investigating belief and prediction in economic models, precarious labour, illicit and marginalized markets and other concerns. In advance of the exhibitions, this symposium brings together artists and scholars to explore the exhibit themes through an interdisciplinary lens. Artists-in-residence Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby – whose work explores juridical, financial and spatial constructs through notions of the performative and the virtual – are visiting the Belkin in advance of the project. They will be joined by Geoff Mann, author of Disassembly Required: A Field Guide to Actually Existing Capitalism and artist Marianne Nicolson, whose current research looks at an early experiment with capitalism on the part of the Kwakwaka’wakw people of the Northwest Coast in collaboration with “Boston men” (Americans) for markets in China. The symposium will be moderated by Jaleh Mansoor, UBC Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the UBC Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies whose Arts-Based Initiative Award funded the residency of Goldin+Senneby. To refuse/To wait/To sleep and M&A are made possible with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council and our Belkin Curator’s Forum members.
Syposium: Speculation and Performance in Art and Finance with artists Goldin+Senneby and Marianne Nicolson along with geographer Geoff Mann. Moderated by Jaleh Mansoor, UBC Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, November 16, 2016
(2:19:58)
Marianne Nicolson, Tunics of the Changing Tide: Dzawada’enuxw Histories, 2007. Photo: Two Rivers Gallery, 2015
Goldin+Senneby is the framework for collaboration between Swedish artists Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby. Since 2004, Goldin+Senneby have initiated projects that explore juridical, financial and spatial constructs through notions of the performative and the virtual. Through actions and theoretical pursuits, they interrogate the mythologies created by virtual economies and fictional personae. In their recent body of work, Headless (2007-), they approach the sphere of offshore finance and its production of virtual space through legal code. Since 2010 their work has focused on The Nordenskiöld Model, an experiment in theatrical finance, in which they attempt to reenact the anarcho-alchemical scheme of eighteenth-century alchemist August Nordenskiöld on the financial markets of today. Goldin+Senneby’s current project, M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions), uses the exhibition infrastructure as laboratory for developing algorithmic trading models. Mirroring the design of the algorithm intended to detect activity in the stock market that indicates early stages of possible mergers and acquisitions, Goldin+Senneby combine the speculative nature of both theatre and finance and the precarious labour conditions that characterize late capitalism. Jakob Senneby and Simon Goldin received MFA degrees from Stockholm’s Royal University College of Fine Arts in 2004 and 2007, respectively. In parallel with his artistic work, Goldin has studied management at the Stockholm School of Economics. Recent solo exhibitions include Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2013), Artspace NZ, Auckland (2013), NAK, Aachen (2012), Kadist, Paris (2010) and The Power Plant, Toronto (2008). Group exhibitions include Tate Liverpool (2013), 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2011). Residencies include: Headlands, San Francisco (2012); SALT, Istanbul (2012); Kadist, Paris (2010); Gasworks, London (2008); IASPIS, Stockholm (2007).
Geoff Mann teaches political economy and economic geography at Simon Fraser University, where he directs the Centre for Global Political Economy. His research concerns the political economy of capitalism and focuses on the ways in which macroeconomic governance in liberal democracy is affected by economic and ecological crisis. His book Our Daily Bread: Wages, Workers and the Political Economy of the American West (UNC, 2007) won the Paul Sweezy Prize from the American Sociological Association and the Michael S. Harrington Award from the American Political Science Association, and his writing on capitalism has appeared in New Left Review and Historical Materialism, among other journals. In the Long Run We are All Dead: Keynesianism, Political Economy & Revolution will be published by Verso in January 2017.
Marianne Nicolson (Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw, Musga̱maḵw Dzawada̱’enux̱w First Nations, b. 1969) is an artist and activist of the Musga̱maḵw Dzawada̱’enux̱w Nations who are part of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw (Kwak’wala speaking peoples) of the Northwest Coast. She is trained in both traditional Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw forms and culture and contemporary gallery and museum-based practice. Her practice is multi-disciplinary, encompassing photography, painting, carving, video, installation, monumental public art, writing and speaking. She works as a Kwakwaka’wakw cultural researcher and historian, as well as an advocate for Indigenous land rights. She holds a BFA from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (1996), an MFA (2000), MA in Linguistics and Anthropology (2005) and PhD in Linguistics and Anthropology with a focus on space as expressed in the Kwak’wala language (2013) all from the University of Victoria. Solo exhibitions include the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2008); Artspeak, Vancouver (2006); Esquimalt Municipal Hall (2004); Thunder Bay Art Gallery (2002); National Indian Art Centre, Hull (2001); Campbell River Public Art Gallery (2000) and Or Gallery, Vancouver (1992). Group exhibitions include the 17th Biennale of Sydney (2020); the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2020); the Vancouver Art Gallery (2019-20); the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2018-19) and the National Museum of the American Indian, New York (2017-19), among others. Major monumental public artworks are situated in her home territory of the Musga̱maḵw Dzawada̱’enux̱w First Nation, Vancouver International Airport, the Canadian Embassy in Amman, Jordan and the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France.
Following Nicolson’s Hexsa’a̱m: To Be Here Always, a 2019 project with the Belkin that functioned as research, material, media, testimony and ceremony to challenge the western concept that the power of art as limited to the symbolic, This Is An Emergency Broadcast (2023) is another moment to amplify Indigenous tradition.
Goldin+Senneby is the framework for collaboration between Swedish artists Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby. Since 2004, Goldin+Senneby have initiated projects that explore juridical, financial and spatial constructs through notions of the performative and the virtual. Through actions and theoretical pursuits, they interrogate the mythologies created by virtual economies and fictional personae. In their recent body of work, Headless (2007-), they approach the sphere of offshore finance and its production of virtual space through legal code. Since 2010 their work has focused on The Nordenskiöld Model, an experiment in theatrical finance, in which they attempt to reenact the anarcho-alchemical scheme of eighteenth-century alchemist August Nordenskiöld on the financial markets of today. Goldin+Senneby’s current project, M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions), uses the exhibition infrastructure as laboratory for developing algorithmic trading models. Mirroring the design of the algorithm intended to detect activity in the stock market that indicates early stages of possible mergers and acquisitions, Goldin+Senneby combine the speculative nature of both theatre and finance and the precarious labour conditions that characterize late capitalism. Jakob Senneby and Simon Goldin received MFA degrees from Stockholm’s Royal University College of Fine Arts in 2004 and 2007, respectively. In parallel with his artistic work, Goldin has studied management at the Stockholm School of Economics. Recent solo exhibitions include Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2013), Artspace NZ, Auckland (2013), NAK, Aachen (2012), Kadist, Paris (2010) and The Power Plant, Toronto (2008). Group exhibitions include Tate Liverpool (2013), 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2011). Residencies include: Headlands, San Francisco (2012); SALT, Istanbul (2012); Kadist, Paris (2010); Gasworks, London (2008); IASPIS, Stockholm (2007).
Shelly Rosenblum is Curator of Academic Programs at the Belkin. Inaugurating this position at the Belkin, Rosenblum’s role is to develop programs that increase myriad forms of civic and academic engagement at UBC, the wider Vancouver community and beyond. Rosenblum received her PhD at Brown University and has taught at Brown, Wesleyan and UBC. Her awards include fellowships from the Center for the Humanities, Wesleyan University and a multi-year Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Department of English, UBC. She was selected for the Summer Leadership Institute of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University (2014). Her research interests include issues in contemporary art and museum theory, discourses of the Black Atlantic, critical theory, narrative and performativity. Her teaching covers the 17th to the 21st centuries. She remains active in professional associations related to academic museums and cultural studies, attending international conferences and workshops, and recently completing two terms (six years) on the Board of Directors at the Western Front, Vancouver, including serving as Board President. At UBC, Rosenblum is an Affiliate of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.
In conjunction with the book launch, Marianne Nicolson will be presenting an artist talk beginning at 1 pm in the Gallery. [Read more...] <http://belkin.ubc.ca/events/marianne-nicolson-artist-talk>
[more]We are excited to welcome the UBC Contemporary Players back to the Belkin Art Gallery for a concert inspired by the exhibitions To refuse/To wait/To sleep and M&A. The program will showcase original compositions written specifically for the ensemble by UBC composers, as well as a new improvised work developed through workshops with visiting artist Douglas Finch. Led by directors Corey Hamm and Paolo Bortolussi with coaching support from Laine Longton, this graduate and undergraduate music ensemble from the UBC School of music will animate the Gallery for an afternoon program exploring themes from the exhibition including a range of affective expressions of late capitalism.
[more]This symposium is occasioned by the To refuse/To wait/To sleep and M&A exhibitions at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. The paradoxical nature of money means that it has long been of interest to artists. Money’s tense and ever-changing relationship with the spiritual and material worlds are echoed in the visual arts - both money and art seem to have the capacity to conjure substance and value out of nothing. Although the relationship between the visual or performance arts and money is an old one, it is only relatively recently that artists have produced works that seek in some way to emulate or model economic practices. Both visual and performance artists are increasingly using their work to explicitly reflect upon the economic conditions in which it is being created. This has intensified in recent years as contemporary art has become ever more closely associated with high finance, appearing more and more as a global industry in its own right.
[more]To refuse/To wait/To sleep and M&A bring together work by Goldin+Senneby, Melanie Gilligan, Gabrielle Hill, Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens, Marianne Nicolson and Raqs Media Collective to investigate belief and prediction in economic models, precarious labour and illicit and marginalized markets. Speculative and experimental, their work tests models, forecasts futures and examines histories of exchange and the limits of productivity. In the context of knowledge-based economies, student debt and the outsourcing of intellectual labour, the exhibition aims to draw forth dialogues about how we imagine individual and collective futures in the “new normal.”A
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