This Will Be the First Retrospective of the Pioneering Artists' Organisation

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

This will be the first retrospective of the pioneering artists' organisation Artist Placement Group, or APG, conceived by Barbara Steveni in 1965 and established a year later by Steveni and John Latham along with Barry Flanagan, David Hall, Anna Ridley and Jeffrey Shaw, among others. Between 1966 and the turn of the 1980s, APG negotiated approximately fifteen placements for artists lasting from a few weeks to several years; first within industries (often large corporations such as British Steel and ICI) and later within UK government departments such as the Department of the Environment and the Scottish Office. APG arranged that artists would work to an ‘open brief’, whereby their placements were not required to produce tangible results, but that the engagement itself could potentially benefit both host organisations as well as the artists in the long- term. Artists' work in proposing and carrying out placements will be represented here in diverse ways, in films, photographs, texts and correspondence and sometimes in art objects. APG was a milestone in Conceptual Art in Britain, reinventing the means of making and disseminating art, and anticipating many of the issues facing cultural workers today. It represented itself in a number of exhibitions and events, notably in the exhibition Art and Economics at the Hayward Gallery in 1971 with artistic interventions by Garth Evans, Barry Flanagan, John Latham and others. Emulating APG's emphasis on the discursive, the exhibition will host frequent public discussions relating to art and social organisation. (This document was automatically generated by Contemporary Art Library.).

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Apexart 291 Church Street, New York, Ny 10013 T
The Incidental Person The British artist John Latham (1921–2006) coined the elements of space and matter (this would be the space- January 6 to February 20, 2010 expression the “Incidental Person” (IP) to qualify an based or (S) framework), but by time, and by the basic individual who engages in non-art contexts – industry, temporal unit Latham called “the least event”. Curated by Antony Hudek politics, education – while avoiding the “for/against”, The implications of the shift from space-and- “you vs. me” disposition typically adopted to resolve matter to time-and-event are far-reaching. Gone, for Contributors’ names appear in red in the text. Darker differences. The IP, Latham argued, “may be able, example, is the division between subject and object. red indicates faculty and students from Portland State University MFA Art and Social Practice Concentration. given access to matters of public interest ranging from Formerly perceived as ontologically different, in the national economic, through the environmental the (T) framework subject and object co-exist in Special thanks to Ron Bernstein, Sara De Bondt, and departments of the administration to the ethical varying simultaneous temporal frequencies or, to Romilly Eveleigh, Anna Gritz, Joe at The Onion, Cybele Maylone, Barbara Steveni, Athanasios Velios in social orRon Bernsteinientation, to ‘put forward use Latham’s terminology, in various “time-bases”. 1 and Ewelina Warner. answers to questions we have not yet asked’.” ObjJoachim Pfeuferects themselves no longer occupy Diagrammatically, the IP transforms the linear, two- stable positions in the taxonomic grids belonging to Cover image: Invitation to APG seminar, Royal College dimensional plane of conflict into a three-dimensional, distinct disciplines.
[Show full text]
The Exhibition: Histories, Practices, Policies
The Exhibition: Histories, Practices, Policies N. 1 4 2019 issn 1646-1762 issn faculdade de ciências sociais e humanas – nova Revista de História da Arte N. 14 2019 The Exhibition: Histories, Practices and Politics BOARD (NOVA/FCSH) Margarida Medeiros (ICNOVA/NOVA/FCSH) Joana Cunha Leal Nuno Faleiro Rodrigues (CEAA, ESAP) Alexandra Curvelo Pedro Flor (IHA/NOVA/FCSH) Margarida Brito Alves Pedro Lapa (FLUL) Pedro Flor Raquel Henriques da Silva (IHA/NOVA/FCSH) SCIENTIFIC COORDINATION – RHA 14 Sandra Leandro (IHA/NOVA/FCSH; UE) Joana Baião (IHA/NOVA/FCSH; CIMO/IPB) Sandra Vieira Jürgens (IHA/NOVA/FCSH) Leonor de Oliveira (IHA/NOVA/FCSH; Courtauld Institute Sarah Catenacci (Independent art historian, Rome) of Art) Sofia Ponte (FBAUP) Susana S. Martins (IHA/NOVA/FCSH) Susana Lourenço Marques (FBAUP; IHA/NOVA/FCSH) Tamara Díaz Bringas (Independent researcher and curator, Cuba) EDITORIAL COORDINATION Victor Flores (CICANT/ULHT) Ana Paula Louro Joana Baião ENGLISH PROOFREADING Leonor de Oliveira KennisTranslations Lda. Susana S. Martins Thomas Williams REVIEWERS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER) PUBLISHER Alda Costa (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo) Instituto de História da Arte (NOVA/FCSH) Ana Balona de Oliveira (IHA/NOVA/FCSH) DESIGN Ana Carvalho (CIDEHUS/UE) José Domingues Carlos Garrido Castellano (University College Cork) ISSN Giulia Lamoni (IHA/NOVA/FCSH) 1646-1762 Gregory Scholette (Queens College/City University of New York) Helena Barranha (IHA/NOVA/FCSH; IST/UL) © copyright 2019 Hélia Marçal (Tate Modern, London) The authors and the Instituto de História da Arte (NOVA/ João Carvalho Dias (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation) FCSH) José Alberto Gomes Machado (CHAIA/UE) © cover photo Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) View of Graciela Carnevale’s 1968 action Encierro Laura Castro (School of Arts/UCP) (Confinement), Rosario, Argentina.
[Show full text]
John Latham's Cosmos and Midcentury Representation
John Latham's cosmos and mid-century representation Article (Accepted Version) Rycroft, Simon (2016) John Latham’s cosmos and mid-century representation. Visual Culture in Britain, 17 (1). pp. 99-119. ISSN 1471-4787 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/60729/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Visual Culture in Britain For Peer Review Only John Latham’s Cosmos and Mid -Century Representation Journal: Visual Culture in Britain Manuscript ID RVCB-2015-0004.R1 Manuscript Type: Original Paper Keywords: John Latham, Mid-century, Skoob, Conceptual art, Cosmology URL: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rvcb Page 1 of 39 Visual Culture in Britain 1 2 3 John Latham’s Cosmos and Mid-Century Representation 4 5 6 7 8 The conceptual artist John Latham (1921 – 2006) is sometimes cast as disconnected to the currents of British 9 10 visual culture.
[Show full text]
John Latham's
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Loughborough University Institutional Repository Monuments to the period we live in. Craig Richardson Abstract: John Latham’s (1921 – 2006) ‘monuments to the period we live in’i are two partially protected groups of oil shale ‘bings’ (Norse: heaps). These were initially the voluminous waste by-product of Scotland’s energy production industries, reconceived within a synthesis of methods originally developed by the Artist Placement Group (APG) 1965 – 89 and allied to concepts within the manifesto of auto-destructive art (Metzger, 1965) and the proclivities of Latham’s renowned but often controversial practice. This chapter explains the methodology of Latham’s reimagination of the site he renamed Niddrie Woman (1975-6) and why it has resonance. In doing so the essay looks forward to how the future conservation of these remarkable forms as sculptural monuments is increasingly dependent on their assessment as ‘hotspots’ of biodiversity. The academic context builds on archival items within the Artist Placement Group Archive at Tate Britain’s Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Richardson (2012), Walker (1976, 1994) and curatorial research (Hudek, 2012), and onsite environmental research (Harvie, 2005). 1 A methodology of engagement Artist Placement Group (APG) was ‘founded’ii in London in 1966 as both a collective and an agency. Barbara Steveni, John Latham, Anna Ridley, Barry Flanagan, David Hall and Jeffrey Shaw hybridized business, science and civil service practices with socially engaged art. In 2002, Mute Magazine described the artworld’s response to APG’s seemingly aberrant rationale for ‘tangling with the dirt of commerce and the public sector’,iii with it later coming ‘to define large swathes of artistic practice.
[Show full text]
Context Is Half the Work. a Partial History of The
10 VISUAL ARTS VISUAL ARTS 11 CONTEXT IS HALF THE WORK. A PARTIAL HISTORY OF THE ARTIST PLACEMENT GROUP Artists include Ian Breakwell, Roger Coward, Garth Evans, David Hall, John Latham, George Levantis and Barbara Steveni and others Curated by Naomi Hennig and Ulrike Jordan in dialogue with Barbara Steveni The Artist Placement Group (APG) was founded in the UK The first took place within a psychiatric hospital (1976) in 1966. The group initiated and organised placements for and the second was an interdisciplinary APG/DHSS research artists within industry and public institutions where they project which led to the development of an audio-visual would research, develop ideas and projects in-situ. therapy method for dementia-afflicted patients (1978-79). According to the APG principle, artistic practices and In addition, a selection of Barbara Steveni's contextualizing knowledge no longer needed to be confined to the studio, video walks and interviews with women protagonists of but the reach of the artist could extend to commercial, the time will be shown. industrial and government contexts in order to contribute to social and organisational processes at all levels. The acclaimed exhibition curated by Naomi Hennig and Ulrike Jordan in dialogue with APG co-founder Barbara Context is Half the Work. A Partial History of the Artist Steveni debuted at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin Placement Group explores seven paradigmatic APG in 2015 (12 September – 8 November). The second iteration placements; it includes research material, video works, art of the exhibition staged at Summerhall is the first Scottish works and documentation of the group’s activity, raising exhibition giving an overview of this seminal group and questions still relevant for present day context-based artistic related works, and is reworked in order to highlight the practices.
[Show full text]
Tate Report 2002–2004
TATE REPORT 2002–2004 Tate Report 2002–2004 Introduction 1 Collection 6 Galleries & Online 227 Exhibitions 245 Learning 291 Business & Funding 295 Publishing & Research 309 People 359 TATE REPORT 2002–2004 1 Introduction Trustees’ Foreword 2 Director’s Introduction 4 TATE REPORT 2002–2004 2 Trustees’ Foreword • Following the opening of Tate Modern and Tate Britain in 2000, Tate has consolidated and built on this unique achieve- ment, presenting the Collection and exhibitions to large and new audiences. As well as adjusting to unprecedented change, we continue to develop and innovate, as a group of four gal- leries linked together within a single organisation. • One exciting area of growth has been Tate Online – tate.org.uk. Now the UK’s most popular art website, it has won two BAFTAs for online content and for innovation over the last two years. In a move that reflects this development, the full Tate Biennial Report is this year published online at tate.org.uk/tatereport. This printed publication presents a summary of a remarkable two years. • A highlight of the last biennium was the launch of the new Tate Boat in May 2003. Shuttling visitors along the Thames between Tate Britain and Tate Modern, it is a reminder of how important connections have been in defining Tate’s success. • Tate is a British institution with an international outlook, and two appointments from Europe – of Vicente Todolí as Director of Tate Modern in April 2003 and of Jan Debbaut as Director of Collection in September 2003 – are enabling us to develop our links abroad, bringing fresh perspectives to our programme.
[Show full text]
NATIONAL LIFE STORIES ARTISTS' LIVES Barbara Steveni Interviewed
NATIONAL LIFE STORIES ARTISTS’ LIVES Barbara Steveni Interviewed by Melanie Roberts C466/80 This transcript is copyright of the British Library Boar d. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB 020 7412 7404 [email protected] This transcript is accessible via the British Library’s Archival Sound Recordings website. Visit http://sounds.bl.uk for further information about the interview. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk IMPORTANT Access to this interview and transcript is for private research only. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB 020 7412 7404 [email protected] Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this transcript, however no transcript is an exact translation of the spoken word, and this document is intended to be a guide to the original recording, not replace it. Should you find any errors please inform the Oral History curators ( [email protected] ) © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk The British Library National Life Stories Interview Summary Sheet Title Page Ref no: C466/80/01-10 Digitised from cassette originals Collection title: Artists’ Lives Interviewee’s surname: Steveni Title: Interviewee’s forename: Barbara Mary Lesley Sex: female Occupation: Dates: b. 21.08.1928 Dates of recording : 4.6.1998; 22.6.1998; 4.8.1998; 13.8.1998, 19.10.1998 Location of interview: Interviewee’s home Name of interviewer: Melanie Roberts Type of recorder: Marantz CP430 and two lapel mics Recording format: TDK C60 Cassettes F numbers of playback cassettes: F6683-F6692 Total no.
[Show full text]
Art in Utopia: Can Art Create Social Change?
Niall Brown Art in Utopia: Can Art Create Social Change? Rietveld Fine Arts 2018 Art in Utopia: Can Art Create Social Change? 2 Table of Contents Introduction Page: 3 The Blessing of Labour Page: 5 Bring the Fist into the Artistic Struggle Page: 11 Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge Page: 15 The Revolution of Everyday Life Page: 19 The Community Arts Movement Page: 28 Relational Aesthetics Page: 31 Conclusion Page: 36 Bibliography Page: 38 Image List Page: 40 Art in Utopia: Can Art Create Social Change? 3 Introduction Can art create social change? When an artist creates an image or an object, they draw on experiences or subjects that they consider significant, usually hoping to communicate this to an audience. In many instances, they may to choose to deal with subjects that are much broader than their personal experiences, that relate to the relations between individuals. They may even stray into subject matter that examines the basis for political organisation, but what is the artist really doing when they try to make a work that presents an alternative vision for society? The word ‘utopian’ is used to describe ideas of a hypothetical perfected society, but in common parlance the word has been expanded to often include any form of idealism applied to social planning. To determine whether or not utopianism in art is valuable, it’s necessary to examine the motivations behind such tendencies, and to compare the goals of the artist with the results. The desire of artists to change society is always in conflict with their need to use their artistic talent to make a living, this is something almost every artist needs to confront.
[Show full text]
At the Hayward Gallery, London
Abstract Considered the most unsuccessful show in the Hayward Gallery’s history, the Artist keywords Placement Group’s exhibition inn7o: Art and Economics (1971-72, London) was ad- vertised as an “exhibition in time.” The exhibition was an opportunity for the Artist language Placement Group (APG) to document their progress in negotiating artist place- conceptual sculpture ments within industrial corporations, such as British Steel, Esso Petroleum, and ICI corporation Fibres. The exhibition co-opted corporate language and ritual, creating a replica of 1970s a typical boardroom where meetings between artists and members of industry took place, live, throughout the entirety of the exhibition. This paper re-considers the inn7o exhibition within the context of a shifting British economy and subsequently a re-defining of Britain’s intellectual left. This paper will argue APG’s radicalism should not be defined by democratic participation, but instead, in terms of how language within an exhibition can be used to redefine discourse, blurring and subverting the boundaries between art and economics. • Resumo Considerada o maior fracasso na história da Galeria Hayward, a exposição inn7o: Art palavras-chave and Economics (1971-72, Londres), organizada pelo Artist Placement Group (APG), foi promovida como uma “exposição no seu tempo”. Este evento constituiu uma opor- linguagem tunidade para o APG documentar o seu progresso nas negociações para a colocação escultura conceptual de artistas em corporações industriais, como a British Steel, a Esso Pretroleum e a corporação ICI Fibres. A exposição apropriou-se da linguagem e processos corporativos, apre- década de 1970 sentando uma réplica de uma sala de reunião empresarial, onde decorriam ao vivo encontros entre artistas e membros da indústria.
[Show full text]
The Artist Placement Group: an Archaeology of Impact
The Artist Placement Group: an archaeology of impact Article (Accepted Version) Rycroft, Simon (2019) The Artist Placement Group: an archaeology of impact. Cultural Geographies, 26 (3). pp. 289-304. ISSN 1474-4740 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/80733/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk The Artist Placement Group: An Archaeology of Impact Introduction This paper explores the outlook and activities of Artist Placement Group (APG), the first organisation to establish artist in residence schemes in the United Kingdom.
[Show full text]
The Rise of the Curator and Architecture on Display
THE RISE OF THE CURATOR AND ARCHITECTURE ON DISPLAY Eszter Steierhoffer A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Royal College of Art for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy JanuAry 2016 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT This text represents the submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Royal College of Art. This copy has been supplied for the purpose of research for private study, on the understanding thAt it is copyright material, And that no quotation from the thesis mAy be published without proper acknowledgment. 2 ABSTRACT This thesis constitutes a new Approach to contemporary exhibition studies, a field of research that has until now dedicated little attention to connections between exhibitions of contemporary art and those of architecture. The late 1970s saw a 'historical turn' in the architectural discourse, which alluded to the rediscovery of history, After its abandonment by all the Modern masters, and developed in close alignment with architecture’s project of autonomy. This thesis proposes a reading of this period in relation to the formative moment for contemporary curatorial practices that brought art and architecture together in unprecedented wAys. It takes its starting point from the coexisting and often contradictory spatial representations of art and architecture that occur in exhibitions, which constitute the inherently paradoxical foundations – and legacy – of today’s curatorial discourse. The timeframe of the late 1970s, which is this study’s primary focus, marks the beginning of the institutionalisation of the architecture exhibition: The opening of the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1977), the founding of ICAM in Helsinki (1979), and the first official International Architecture BiennAle in Venice (1980), all of which promoted architecture within the museum.
[Show full text]
Context Is Half the Work
Context is Half the Work Die APG in Großbritannien Ros SachsseSchadt zu unterschiedlichen Zentrale Prämisse der Verhandlungen und Deutschland – eine Einführung Zeiten Teil der APG. Hinzu kamen Mitglieder war das Prinzip des Open Brief , etwa im und Unterstützer_innen aus anderen gesell Sinne einer Carte Blanche, das ein ergebnis Die Artist Placement Group (APG) initiierte scha�lichen Bereichen. offenes Arbeiten während des Placements und organisierte sogenannte Placements, bei Zunächst als Stiftung mit Kuratorium und garantieren sollte. Die Künstler_innen sollten denen Künstler_innen in Industriebetrieben künstlerischem Beirat (dem sog. Noit Panel) innerhalb der Organisationen als unabhän oder öffentlichen Institutionen recherchierten, organisiert, wandelte die APG sich später gige Beobachter_innen agieren und den an Projekten arbeiteten oder künstlerische in eine gemeinnützige GmbH (APG Research Gegenstand ihrer Arbeit aus dem Prozess vor Arbeiten realisierten. Sie argumentierten für Ltd.) um. Dem Kuratorium gehörten Vertre Ort heraus entwickeln. John Latham prägte den gegenseitigen Nutzen, der aus der künst ter_ innen aus Industriebetrieben, aus Kunst den Begriff Incidental Person für diese lerischen Präsenz in Organisationen resul institu tio nen und Medien, später auch ein weit über das klassische Verständnis hin tiert. Künstlerische Praxis und Wissen sollten Gewerkscha�svertreter an. Barbara Steveni ausgehende Rolle der Künstler_innen in den nicht mehr auf das Atelier und die Galerie war als Koordinatorin maßgeblicher Motor Placements. beschränkt bleiben, vielmehr sollte ihr Hand hinter den Kontakten und Korrespondenzen Ab Mitte der 1970er Jahre trat die APG lungsfeld auf kommerzielle, industrielle oder mit hunderten von Firmen und Organisatio ver stärkt an öffentliche Institutionen und Verwaltungskontexte ausgeweitet werden, nen, ebenso wie mit potenziellen Geldgeber_ Ministerien heran.
[Show full text]