![Screenshot created by the artist, Caroline Coolidge, of their phone, showing a white screen with a receipt with black and green text on the app TaskRabbit for 3:45 hours of work by Christopher M. totaling $135.86.](art/taskrabbit/Caroline-Coolidge-TaskRabbit-01.jpg)
Untitled (TaskRabbit), 2019
Action Remnant
Screenshot
Seventeen spherical objects were placed in a circle on the floor of the exhibition space. The objects included a whiskey barrel hoop ring, a flat metal disk, a hubcap, the top of a broken flower pot, a red bowl, and a ring of dirt, to name a few. Seventeen additional objects were placed inside each of the aforementioned objects, thus encircling the additional objects. These included a colorful child’s toy, a gold earring, a single knitting needle, a teapot, a tape dispenser, and photographic slides. All of the objects had aquired a patina, evoking a used quality. The objects held this arrangement for the first three days of the show. This was the first iteration of the work.
On April 23, 2019, the artist hired Christopher M. through the application TaskRabbit and booked his services for Thursday of that week. Christopher M. arrived at the exhibition space at 2:09pm on April 25, 2019. He promptly began the task that the artist described to him through the TaskRabbit app. After approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes, Christopher M. completed the task. He wrapped all 34 objects in newsprint packing paper and placed each of them, as he saw fit, into the four empty UHAUL boxes. The work was completed slightly before 6:00 pm. Seventeen people, including the artist, were present in the gallery while this act took place.
Once complete, the four UHAUL boxes, now containing all 34 objects, were arranged in the center of the exhibition space by Christopher M. Before departing he wrote his signature on a folded sheet of newsprint and placed it onto the top of one of the boxes. This private, undocumented performance enacted by Christopher M. on April 25, 2019, was the second iteration of the artwork.
For the remaining duration of the show, the four UHAUL boxes occupied the gallery. A screenshot of the TaskRabbit receipt or action remnant was printed and placed in the exhibition guide, found at the entrance of the space. This is the final installation of the action remnant work. The boxes remained in the space until May 17, 2019, when the show closed.