Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

I don't know if riding an elevator is already in your plans for the weekend - but if not, and if you're going to be around London's Southbank, it might be worth slipping in, between looking at the back of people's heads in and waiting to get served at .

The Southbank Centre is recreating 's - first shown at Birmingham's in 2005 - as part of its . The artwork is staged inside the centre's glass JCB lift and involves the recorded voices of singers, rising as the elevator ascends and descending as it falls. Have a listen.

Creed became well-known after for his Work No 227: The Lights Going on and Off. He says his art is a way of countering our visually overloaded, choice-saturated culture. I like Creed's work. I asked him for a line on this piece and got this: "I don't know what to say. I don't know which notes are best. I don't know if I'm coming or going." Up and down maybe, Martin?

He has a numbering system for his work that has taken the Factory Records route of allocating a number to all output, not just his artworks. It's not straightforward like Factory's, though. ; Creed's is a bit more conceptual. I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out the method, but failed to spot a system. I asked his gallery if anyone there could explain. Here's the reply:

"Please find below some info on Martin's titles / numbering:

"'All things are equal in Creed's esthetic universe, whether it's filling a room full of blue balloons or filming a girl crapping on the floor. The Abstract Expressionist painter Clyfford Still numbered his canvases because no words could do them justice. Creed numbers his works because they're basically all the same, just one thing after another. His emblematic equation, 'the whole world + the work = the whole world', posits a value of precisely zero for the work itself.' ()

"'Everything Creed makes is assigned a work number and catalogued; from interventional objects to writing, songs and interviews. The number system is often assigned in a non-linear fashion and does not necessarily relate to the date a piece was created, but a number, once assigned, is never used again. Work #158, 1996, is a simple sheet of framed A4 white office paper with the sentence 'something on the left, just as you come in, not too high or low' printed in black ink. The framed piece of A4 hangs on the wall exactly as described. Work #115, 1995, is subtitled 'a doorstop fixed to a floor to let a door open only 30 degrees', which is again, exactly what the viewer encounters on entering the gallery.' ()

"'His often extremely self-effacing works, all titled by number, have been characterised as 'attempts to short-circuit the visually overloaded, choice saturated culture in which we live'. They also take their place in the honourable tradition within the avant-garde of making work which appears to have no material value - which resists or defies commodification, even if in vain. Hence his conscious use of modest and everyday materials.' ()

"'Since 1987, Creed has numbered each of his works, and most of his titles relate in a very direct way to the piece's substance. Work No. 79, some Blu-tack kneaded, rolled into a ball and depressed against a wall (1993), for example, is just what it sounds like, as is Work No. 88, a sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball (1994). One of Creed's best known works is Work No. 200, half the air in a given space (1998), which is a room with enough inflated balloons in it for them to contain half the air in it.' ()

"'Creed presents us with a picture of quotidien life in the fourth dimension. It is a place as ordered and conventional as this world, but its rules are awkwardly and sometimes unobtrusively different. Since 1987, he has given each of his works a number, and it is apt that this numbering system has nothing to do with the logical numerical sequence convention dictates. Some numbers remain unascribed, but these aren't gaps, rather elegant creations of palpable nothingness; somewhere they might have an abundant shape and presence, as suggested by the alternative title for Work no. 208: song (1999) - Nothing is Something.' ()"

"You might also find this quote interesting:"

"'Giorgio Sadotti: If you were a number and not a name, what would it be and why?
MC: [laughs] Erm... aye... I'd have to say zero... because... er... you know, it's exactly halfway between positive and negative... and since I'd find it very difficult to choose a number... zero would be the least of... zero would be the number that would cause me the least worry... and that's... yeah... important to me... aye... I'd probably be happy with that.' (from )"

The idea of a number as onomatopoeia. That's nice.