Hand Model

Hand Model is a web based conceptual art project. At first glance the visitor/viewer may not be aware that they’re looking at an art project. The website handmodel.ca is purposefully vague and looks like it could be a hand modelling service and/or agency. It is not. The visitor who arrives by way of a search engine query (“hand model”) is unwittingly served up a collection of artwork.

“Hand Model” is a service of sorts for emerging artists to get their work and names out into the public realm (they are credited and hyperlinked). Art advertises art. The artworks are modelled in a manner similar to a commodity being advertised in a magazine.

Since its inception the website has attracted hundreds of emails from people seeking advice on how to become a hand model. This became part of the project itself. The commercial aesthetic is seductive. People, desperate for a way into this marginalised field in modelling, would often send unsolicited photos of their hands. All those who contact the website are informed that it is not an agency but is in fact an art project created by an artist with no professional knowledge or contacts in the field.