DISCOUNT POOL SUPPLIES

Laurie Oxenford and Grace Dewar

DISCOUNT POOL SUPPLIES is an investigation and intervention of the quasi-industrial locality of The WALLS Art Space, Miami. Initiated as a chance encounter with Discount Pool Supplies (open Mon–Fri 8:30am–12:30pm), the first informal interaction and subsequent meetings occurred with no preconceived outcome, but an interest in the everyday systems, intentions and material archives existing in the shop space. 

Situated in the expanded field of public art, DISCOUNT POOL SUPPLIES was developed as a series of actions and exchanges; presenting new understandings and spatial inquiries. Acknowledging public space as a "participatory landscape", their object-based experiments position public space as a studio, interaction as form, and active participation as activism. Images, video and objects offer an incomplete archive of the live interactions between the artists themselves and their unknowing collaborators.

Laurie Oxenford and Grace Dewar’s collaborative practice considers the critical thresholds and potentials of public space. Their site-specific and durational projects are approached with a shared spatial aesthetic that is inherently concerned with process, performance and conceptual practices. Often realised via psycho-geography and social practice, they respond to site and situation as part of the work. Within their interdisciplinary practices, they navigate shared interests in material hierarchies, value and chance as principles for developing critical dialogue.