Artist:
HE SAID Talent Agency

Genre:
Installation
Performative talk
Ongoing performance
Online campaign

Synopsis:
Ever wished you could affect the economy? Do you even matter in the economy anyway?

HE SAID Talent Agency is testing (and learning about) the economy by buying as many of a single action figure as possible in order to change it's price in the economy and make it a rare commodity.

Detail:
The Agency as a collective has selected Ram Man (of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) figures specifically those manufactured in 1982 in Taiwan (please see image). We have been buying and collecting since mid 2009, scouring car boot sales, jumble sales, and online for the figures and have amassed quite an army. We've learnt a lot about the economy on the way, but to be honest we didn't know much in the first place.

The workings:
The piece charts the highs and lows of one groups' sway on a global system and comprises of several elements which can exist alone or together. The act of collecting is in itself is an ongoing performance which includes short You Tube videos of the assessment of new purchases. The other elements include the figures as an installation, an accompanying performative talk and an online campaign for people to track.

The collection is being shown as it develops and the performance element is currently being developed within the framework of Escalator Performing Arts (2010) and the support of Arts Council England.

Follow:
Every figure we buy, we tweet the price and once the figure is received we do a film of it being added to the collection.
www.twitter.com/youwillberare
www.youtube.com/hesaidtalent

Shown/performed:
Pulse Fringe Festival, Ipswich, June 2010
The Junction, Cambridge, May 2010
The Arnolfini, Bristol, March 2010
firstsite, Colchester, December 2009

Available for show