Author: Shane Bradford

UCA Farnham and Assembly Line are delighted to present Multiple Universe, an exhibition asking the question ‘why make more than one?’

Multiple Universe responds to the question of multiplicity in art-making, aiming to re-evaluate the notion of the art multiple and the edition in relation to the proliferation of screen-based media, Web3, and the NFT. The exhibition questions the future of physical art made to be seen, touched, and used in the world when surrounded by ever-expanding digital spaces. By showing the works in their original groupings, the exhibition emphasises their plurality whilst purposefully raising awareness of the exhibition as a commercial space, taking a fresh look at arts relationship with commerce.

“Assembly Line is run by myself and the other artists, operating mostly through our online ecommerce shop where we sell specially made limited-edition art multiples. It is run as a semi-cooperative, redistributing a proportion of our sales income equally amongst all our contributors. It’s something of an antidote to the boom-and-bust, winner-takes-all attitude that’s common practice in the art world. We also aim to encourage people to become art collectors by extending gallery prices to an accessible level. Mostly we just want to provide exquisite, intelligent, and original artworks for your collection!”

_{Shane Bradford, artist and Assembly Line founder}

Assembly Line is delighted to present ‘Multiple Universe,’ in partnership with Union Gallery, London. This exhibition questions the future of physical art made to be seen, touched, and used in the world when surrounded by ever-expanding digital spaces.

Each artist places a unique work alongside their 3D editions for Assembly Line. By showing the works in their original groupings, the exhibition emphasises their plurality whilst purposefully raising awareness of the exhibition as a commercial space in terms of display, taking a fresh look at arts relationship with commerce. ‘Multiple Universe’ features work from established artists Ben Cain, Benedikt Hipp, Rose Eken, Kate Street, Shane Bradford, and Amba Sayal-Bennett.

Assembly Line was delighted to take part in the first Art Car Boot Fair Live, ‘Flora and Fauna’ in May, 2021, the first major outing after being couped up by the pandemic!

The first Art Car Boot Fair was held in London in 2004 with a line-up of around 30 artists including Gavin Turk, Abigail Lane, Mat Collishaw, Fiona Banner and Bob & Roberta Smith. The ACBF has been held every year since, except for 2005, and it currently takes place twice a year and features an invited line-up of 150 artists with Turner Prize winners pitching next to rising stars, fine artists next to street artists and everything in between. The art is exclusively commissioned for the event and presented at fabulously reduced, just-for-the-day prices by the artist in person.

Founded and produced by Karen Ashton, a curator and independent art consultant and writer, and originally produced with Helen Hayward, the ideas behind the Art Car Boot Fair developed out of Joshua Compston’s ‘Fete Worse than Death’ and Gavin Turk’s ‘Livestock Market’ and ‘Articultural Shows’, Hoxton-based events that blazed a trail in the late 90s. The first Art Car Boot Fair picked up where they left off with the intention of re-introducing some summer fun and frivolity into a thriving but increasingly commercial London art scene.

• Kate Groobey
• Benedikt Hipp
• Shane Bradford
• Rose Eken
• Sampo
• Ben Cain