Ms Lismore came by and presented me with a conundrum. She had passed by the shop a couple of times, read the big poster explaining what was happening here, and decided to come in to ask for my assistance. Now, she was not interested in taking part in my conceptual game and trade a broken object for a sculpture. Instead, she had an artwork that was broken and that needed to be repaired. Even if it wasn’t really what I had set out to do, could I maybe just fix it? And then obviously not turn it into a conceptual contemporary artwork. The plaster plaque of a horse’s head (a mass produced remake after a classical Greek model, if I am not mistaken) belonged to her sister, it was not worth much but had emotional value, and Ms Lismore’s niece had accidentally broken it while the sister was away. If I could just patch it together before the sister came back from her holidays, that would be grand!

The plaque after being glued together again.

This was clearly not what I had set out to do with my project, but then again, the request addressed several interesting issues. What if artists were paid by the community, to supply the normal citizens with artistic services? What would that look like, if not only affluent people could afford to order a portrait for the 40th birthday, or ask for a sculpture to commemorate a wedding, or just something to make the workplace a bit more interesting? I guess a lot of the requests would be simple, small jobs like the one Ms Lismore had asked me to do, so I decided to agree, and I restored her plaque to the best of my abilities. Given that I am a sculptor and not a professional art restorer, I explained that I could repair the physical shape with glue and carefully brushed on plaster in the cracks, but that the repairs would still be clearly visible having a different colour, repainting the plaque is something I didn’t dare take on. Hopefully, it looks even more antique this way.

Object no. 15