fast and loose (my dead gallery)
click here for other exhibitions
. New
Vision Centre (1956-66)
. Signals
(64-66)
. London
Free School (66)
. Indica
(65-67)
. Arts
Lab (67-69)
. Gallery
House (72-73)
. The
Gallery (72-78)
. 2B
Butler's Wharf (75-78)
London 1956-2006
curated by the Centre of Attention
. Fantasy
Factory (75-96)
. Art
Meeting Place (74-76)
. B2
(79-84)
. NeTWork
21 (86)
. The
Women's Art Library/Make (82-2002)
. BANK
(91-2003)
. workfortheeyetodo
(92-98)
featuring works from the neo-naturists, Rita Donagh, Stuart Brisley, Liz Finch, John Hopkins and Sue Hall, Susan Hiller, David Critchley, Alison Winckle ... and performances from David Medala and Tina Keane.
Pdf catalogue on request
Exhibition:
13 October to 5 November
Fridays to Sundays, 1 to 6pm
at Fieldgate
Gallery
14 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES
(gallery tel: 07957 228351)
tube: Aldgate East or Whitechapel, map
agenda:
London Free School:
-to give a talk / have a meeting / just email
or book a slot in the schedule at the gallery
Art Meeting Place: open for 3 artist shows. Add your name to the book in the AMP space.
We decided to look into our past and look at other radical, interesting, avant-garde spaces and endeavours in London in the last 50 years or so. What we found was fascinating and inspiring and what amounts to a secret history of the London Art world.
Our exercise in Ancestor Worship is aimed at drawing attention to these virtually undocumented endeavours and at creating a total art work using these art interfaces/spaces as the material.
We have focused on the entities that share with us a curatorial quality and come some way as exemplifying the gallery as producer, the space as the author, which is to say that the space can be the artist. And like the artist it manifests its own tropes, its own sensibilities and styles, and its own identity and life.
While very different, these spaces share a few characteristics. Against the prevailing orthodoxies of their time either in subject, form, content or materials, they all existed in an underground relation to the cultural mainstream. As pioneers looking for a greater freedom, many were vociferous in their criticism of the art worlds they were finding themselves in.
Powered by Idealistic impulses transformed into pragmatic forces, they set to present work outside the established structures and create vital nexus with new peer groups.
And yet
it would seem that they all failed, in that they no longer exist.
But to us, they are an Injunction to FAIL AGAIN. FAIL BETTER.
With fast and loose (my dead gallery), we bring back to you: the New Vision Centre (1956-65), Signals (64-66), London Free School (66), Indica (65-67), Arts Lab (67-69), Gallery House (72-73), The Gallery (72-78), 2B Butler's Wharf (75-78), Fantasy Factory (75-96), Art Meeting Place (74-76), B2 (79-84), NeTWork 21 (86), The Women's Art Library/Make (82-2002), BANK (91-03), workfortheeyetodo (92-98)
The Centre of Attention, October 2006
With thanks to Richard Ducker, Sonya Park, Rosetta Brooks, Sigi Krauss, Lisa Gonzalez, David Medalla, Guy Brett, Robin Klassnik, Andrew Wilson, Barry Miles, Susan Hiller, John Blandy, Dave Tomlin, Sue Hall, John 'Hoppy' Hopkins, John Dunbar, Dr Stella Santacatterina, Dr Nick Bowen, Sebastian Boyle, NP James, Vaughan Grylls, Miriam Tinguely, Alison Winckle, David Critchley, Akiko Hada, David Dawson, Jen and Christine Binnie, Mimi Tin Maung and the neo-naturists, Rebecca John, John Sharkey, Simon Cutts, Althea Greenan, Bruno de Florence, Thomas Mutke, James Birch, Margaret Garlake, Jim Haynes, Genesis P-Orridge, Simon Bedwell, Milly Thompson, Chrissie Iles, Derek Culley, John Rastall, David Tidball, Damien Roach, Gina Bold, Kaspar Swankey and the many others who helped and supported us for this show.
The Centre of Attention, 67 Clapton Common, London E5 9AA tel 020 8880 5507