Artists set the Olympic agenda in new KK Outlet Art Relay show

Relays are fun aren’t they – the combination of team and individual, the frisson of terror when the baton slips from someone’s grasp and that moment when one team just puts a really fast guy/girl at the end and romps home to victory from well back in the field. So it’s great news that our friends up at KK Outlet are harnessing this pleasure in a cultural context with their new show Art Relay.

The idea is pretty simple – reach out to a host of great creatives (Craig Oldham, Danny Sangra, La Bolleur, Keetra Dean Dixon, James Bridle and Sean Freeman), ask them to make a piece responding to the Olympics, they then pass it on to someone they admire and that creative does the same until there are four pieces per team, which then go on show at the east London gallery.

With creatives like Max Lamb, Ill Studio and Karim Zariffa involved in the later stages and themes ranging from patriotism and triumph to drug cheats and surveillance across prints, sculpture, video and more, it’s an excellent way to let creatives dictate their own responses to London 2012.

While some teammates have subverted their predessors others have built on their work in a more linear way, leading to an eclectic narrative approach between the different teams. Oh, and it’s surely worth mentioning that the brilliant La Bolleur have resurrected a sport last played in 1895 with costumes/equipment supplied.

It’s also an interesting exercise in relinquishing curatorial control and committing to a show the final work in which could not really be predicted – it’s KK Outlet at its agenda-setting best.

The teams in full:

Craig Oldham / Ill Studio / Max Lamb / Thomas Mailaender
Danny Sangra / Andrew De Francesco / Jackie Young / Will Bryant
La Bolleur / Oskar Peet / Joost Jansen / Leonard & Jeroen
Keetra Dean Dixon / Timothy Goodman / William Morrisey / Ed Nacional
James Bridle / Andrew Friend / Studio Goodone
Sean Freeman / Karim Zariffa / Simon Bilodeau