For today’s Advent Calendar image I present an image from ‘Gived.’ This was Richard Layzell’s piece in today’s Nightfair Before Christmas.

Once you had selected something from the stall, it was gift-wrapped and given to you free of charge. It was a very generous, fun, affirmative experience and it lifted my spirits enormously to receive a hand-wrapped button badge of my choice.

Gived is part reaction against the monetary obsession of Christmas, part celebration or revision of the idea of gift-giving, part art-as-gift and part response to the sheer quantities and volume of matter in the world. Layzell seemed very relaxed when I talked to him; he was pleased with how the piece was going, amused at people’s unrelenting enthusiasm for FREE STUFF and philosophical about how easy it is both to acquire things, and to give them away. As ever, I enjoyed his mix of wryness, sense and optimism. While acknowledging the staggering quantities of ‘stuff’ in the world, the crowd-pleasing effect of giving stuff away and the ease of acquiring and donating things, he was also philosophical in his approach to the whole idea and clearly enjoying the affirmative and playful aspects of his idea.

We talked briefly about freecycle and about how much ‘stuff’ there is in the world, and I was impressed by his ability to find a positive way to engage with his audience. While the rest of us artists huddled in the cold trying to protect our perishable works from the corrosive effect of today’s disgusting weather, Gived provided a warming and welcome experience for the public and genuinely worked in the inclement settings. I loved how the piece was both an invitation to contemplate the spending and buying and economics of Christmas, and a reminder of generosity and benevolence. Richard was, by turns, explaining the work as ‘a gift for you’ and ‘a work about the monetary aspects of Christmas.’ (I’ve paraphrased, but hopefully you get the idea…) Watching people’s uncertainty around the stall I was reminded of reactions to our swap-shop when I was an undergraduate running The Cabaret Society; the idea was to bring something you no longer needed and select something you did need. Many people were utterly baffled and suspicious of such economics and either eager to take advantage of ‘FREE STUFF!’ or put off by the perception that some catch or other must exist. Similarly, today, people passing by Gived needed some encouragement or explanation in order to participate in the work.

Gived is an excellent exploration of values and the tradition of Christmas gift-giving.

The Missability Radio Show failed to engage so successfully with its surroundings; the few people who called by were too wet to care about buying badges or postcards and nobody asked me for a candy-cane walking stick cosy knitting demonstration or even a pattern. In the cold, windy, wet weather I wished I had thought a bit more carefully about the site and the time of year and planned instead to give away hot potatoes and warm cider, instead of painstakingly hand-printed CD editions, printed postcards, knitting patterns and button badges. But one has to do these things to learn these things and I’m glad I participated, even if the highlight of my day was getting a free button badge from Richard Layzell’s Gived.