Bob and Roberta Smith: Eileen (2004)

Bob & Roberta Smith brought their DIY aesthetic to Gateshead in an exhibition called Help Build the Ruins of Democracy, including previously unseen works and a new BALTIC commission.

Bob & Roberta Smith are an artistic enterprise, sincere in their ambition to bring anarchy to people's perceptions of art through a conceptual, yet playful approach to art and its making. Their work invites participation and encourages the idea that art can act as a catalyst for change.

Eileen, a new commission, is made from 58 concrete panels that form the walls of an improvised three- sided shack. The work tells the story of a woman whose life is shaped by a series of chance occurrences and recalls an extended conversation between the artist and a friend 'Eileen', who grew up in a divided Ireland in the 1960s & 70s. Eileen becomes a story about the stupidity of prejudice.