The Individual and the Organisation: Artist Placement Group 1966-79
27 September to 16 December 2012
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 eighties, 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.
The exhibition is curated by Antony Hudek and Alex Sainsbury, in consultation with Barbara Steveni.
Selected texts
Events
Monday 19 November 2012
Audio recording
Left:
Jeffrey Shaw
Documentation of various inflatable structures
ca. 1968–69
Still images, Super 8 and 16mm, digitised
Courtesy Eventstructure Research Group (Theo
Botschuiyver, Jeffrey Shaw, Sean Wellesley-Miller)
Right:
Artist in the Works: Made for APG, 1970
16mm, digitised
Directed and narrated by Paul Overy
Produced by Nancy Balfour
Courtesy Tate Archive
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Garth Evans
Frame, 1970
Painted steel
Courtesy the artist and Poussin Gallery
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
David Hall
TV Interruptions – works originally made for Scottish Television, 1971
16mm, digitised
Courtesy the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
David Hall
TV Interruptions – works originally made for Scottish Television, 1971
16mm, digitised
Courtesy the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Documentation from inno–Art & Economics, Hayward Gallery, 1971 and Between 6, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1971
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Foreground: screens showing video documentation of various APG discussions including: inn7o – Art & Economics, Hayward Gallery, London, 1971; APG open day, ICA, London, 1972; documenta 6, Kassel, Germany, 1977
Background:
John Latham, X-ray prints, Clare Hall Hospital placement
1970
Courtesy John Latham Estate
Erth, 1973
16mm, digitised
Courtesy LUX and John Latham Estate
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Documentation from inno–Art & Economics, Hayward Gallery, 1971 and Between 6, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1971
John Latham
X-ray prints, Clare Hall Hospital placement
1970
Courtesy John Latham Estate
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
John Latham
X-ray prints, Clare Hall Hospital placement
1970
Courtesy John Latham Estate
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Selected issues of Studio International, 1970 – 71
Courtesy Henry Moore Institute and Jo Melvin
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Barry Flanagan
funds, ca. 1969
Lino and finger print
Courtesy Flat Time House
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Foreground:
John Latham, Offer For Sale, 1971
Poster
Courtesy Theo Hessing
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Exhibition view showing documentation from placements:
British Transport Film Unit – Ian Breakwell and David Parsons, 1973
British European Airways (BEA) – David Hall, 1969
Ocean Fleets Ltd. – George Levantis, 1974–75
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Exhibition view showing documentation from placements:
British Transport Film Unit – Ian Breakwell and David Parsons, 1973
ICI Fibres Ltd. – Leonard Hessing, 1970–71
British European Airways (BEA) – David Hall, 1969
Esso Petroleum Corporation – Andrew Dipper, 1970
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Leonard Hessing
Eide B25, Eide B26, Eide B210
all 1969
Trichromatic screenprint on vacuum-formed PVC
Courtesy Theo Hessing
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Barbara Steveni
I Am An Archive, 2005 –
Video
Courtesy the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Exhibition view showing documentation from placements:
Department of Health and Social Security – Ian Breakwell, 1976
Department of Health and Social Security – Nick Alderton, Ian Breakwell,
Hugh Davies, Bill Furlong, Mick Kemp, Carmel Sammons and David Toop
1978–79
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Left:
Roger Coward, Com-Com, 1977
Photograph, board
Courtesy the artist
Right:
Roger Coward, The Most Smallest Heath in the Spaghetti Junction, 1975
16mm, digitised
Courtesy the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Material from You and Me Here we Are: What can be Said to be Going On?, Royal College of Art, 1977
Photographs: Roger Coward, Roland Lewis and Lisa Pennington; Photomontages: Roger Coward; Printing: Roger Coward and Brian Nicholls
Courtesy the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Exhibition view showing documentation from the placement:
Centre for Life Studies, London Zoo – David Toop, 1976
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Selection of research photographs from John Latham's placement at the Scottish Office (1975-76) by Pip Benveniste, Rita Donagh and John Latham, among others
1975 – ca. 1997
Courtesy John Latham Estate
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Selection of research photographs from John Latham's placement at the Scottish Office (1975-76) by Pip Benveniste, Rita Donagh and John Latham, among others
1975 – ca. 1997
Courtesy John Latham Estate
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
John Latham
Study for a Bing Monument, 1976
Books, glass
John Latham
Study for a Bing Monument, ca. 1976
Books, processed oil shale from bing
John Latham
Study for a Bing Monument, 1976
Books, rocks and canvas gauze
Courtesy John Latham Estate and Lisson Gallery
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
John Latham
Study for a Bing Monument, 1976
Books, glass
John Latham
Study for a Bing Monument, ca. 1976
Books, processed oil shale from bing
John Latham
Study for a Bing Monument, 1976
Books, rocks and canvas gauze
Courtesy John Latham Estate and Lisson Gallery
On wall:
Aerial view of Niddrie Woman Bing,
West Lothian, n. d.
Ministry of Defence (Air Force Department)
Crown copyright
Courtesy John Latham Estate and Lisson Gallery
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith