We Both Belong, Ben Kinmont’s project launched in 1995 with äda ‘web, invited viewers to partake in an online and offline system of exchange devised by the artist. Following directions provided online, each willing participant (there were 23) took a photograph of him or herself washing dishes and sent it to the artist. Kinmont then framed the image beside one of himself washing dishes and returned this diptych to the participant. Using methods that are straightforward yet understated, Kinmont and the participants turned commonplace domestic activity into meaningful content through their interaction, their documentation, and through a ritualization of their actions.
In this and in all of his work, Kinmont promotes an alternative economy based on human exchange and interest, on conversation and ideas rather than on the economic acquisition of inert property. All of Kinmont’s projects incorporate their own archives, documenting pertinent correspondence, plans, diagrams, and budgetary details. These archives are relatively inclusive and must be maintained by whomever owns the work. By these means, Kinmont establishes parameters for his own documentation, setting up a framing and contextual system that necessitates an interactive role for the owner. By paralleling normative modes of classification in art, he simultaneously reflects the way they reinforce object-oriented creation.
Kinmont has been active since the the late eighties in a variety of public, private, and contemporary art contexts.