Revealing Locating (1979)

One of Kennedy's early site-specific investigations, Revealing Locating considers the gallery itself as a framework for intervention. Taking place at eye level gallery in 1979, this work is a conceptual exploration into the archeology of the gallery—as well as processes of art making/showing more broadly—a concept which resurfaced throughout Kennedy's career with projects like American History Painting (1989), The Native (A Room Painting) (1989) and CORRECTIONS (2012).

For this work Kennedy conducted two investigations: 

For "Revealing" he examined the paint history of the gallery. Starting with a cross section of the wall, Kennedy identified the layers of paint which were applied over the years and displayed these as painted squares encircling the room at eye level. He painted each square with the first colour the walls were painted, then painted every square, except the first, with the second colour, then every square, except the first and second, with the third colour and so on until the last square once again matched the current colour of the gallery walls.

In "Locating", Kennedy hammered nails into the wall at his eye level to find all the studs in the gallery space. He then left a nail to mark the location of each stud and connected his findings with a thin line.

This work was a predecessor to later interventions, like "e" (eyelevel, 1980), and HORIZONS (Vancouver Art Gallery, 1980/2024), which challenged the operational functions of the gallery/exhibition space through dialogue with the artists perspective, both his conceptual angle and his literal line of sight.