From the Archives: The Shilo Project 2010

In 2010 Chris McAuliffe, then Director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art came up with a cracking idea for a touring exhibition. Earlier, in 2007 he had bought a couple of copies of Neil Diamond’s Shilo album. The interesting thing about this cover, which differentiated it from all other album covers, was that it featured a portrait of Neil Diamond using connect-the-dots. It was asking the listener/purchaser to finish the job of designing the cover.

As Chris said: “Is it a commercial product or an artwork? A serious artwork or a game? A portrait or a puzzle? A single artist or jointly authored work? Can it be both, or all, at once?”

One hundred artists were invited to participate in the exhibition. With the permission of Sony and Neil Diamond, all received a perfect facsimile of the sleeve to engage with. The finished sleeves were exhibited in an exhibition designed to echo record stores and lounge rooms of the 1970’s.