TWOC
Material: Snapback baseball caps, painted plywood, curator, MIMA, Joe and associates, wooden shelves, Middlesbrough town and people, interview with David Mollin
Dimensions: various

I was invited by a guest curator to work with Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), its architecture, collection and context in the city of Middlesbrough. This resulted in a work titled TWOC which came in 2 parts, part one was a month-long performance and part two was a two-month long installation that resulted from the performance.

TWOC is a police acronym for TAKEN WITHOUT OWNERS CONSENT and is also used as a colloquial or slang term for theft in Middlesbrough and the North of England. Someone for example can be a twocker or something can be twocked.

Part 1: Reardon subcontracted the acquisition of 31 Snapback baseball caps in Middlesbrough to a Middlesbrough-based thief. The design and logo on baseball caps was unimportant and was solely determined by what was available at the time.

Part 2: The baseball caps were delivered to the home of the curator in random lots of between 5 and 7 caps as and when they were acquired. Meanwhile the curator was instructed to attach the first of a series of red painted plywood letters (sent to him in advance by the artist) or on top of the particular logo on whatever cap he chose to begin his performance with. The adapted baseball cap was then worn by the curator for one entire day - regardless of what he was doing on that day - before being deposited in MIMA. The second baseball cap was likewise adapted and worn as were 31 baseball caps in total throughout the month of May. Each baseball cap ending up in MIMA - once worn for a day - began to grow as an object and as it did so the combined baseball caps began to spell out TAKEN WITHOUT OWNERS CONSENT.

Part 3: The finished work is installed in MIMA until January 2016

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/26208