Thursday December 6th New ways of seeing
“…That the natural qualities of artists, such as the ability to find new solutions to problems, generate self-sufficent systems, indicate new ways of seeing, are urgently needed now. That these qualities are as important as similar qualities coming from the scientific disciplines and could well be applied to the real world of governments, organisations and institutions.” TGA 20042/3/1/1. APG . Constitutional Records. File of APG Statements & Theories defining the functions of the group. c 1966-1979. Folder 4/4.
…”Artists who have seen the end of art as production of object, who have developed forms of expression which are not a repeat of the past, belong to the context of public decisions.” From TGA 20042/3/1/1/92. Proposal for an international exhibition and series of meeting to be hosted by the ICA,”The Function of Artistic Representation in the 80s”.
…”The identification of an important point of departure in the history of art, which in effect signaled the end of art as solely the production of the art object, and the emergence of an art of process, that of event.”From ‘Argument for an enquiry into the role and function of art now’ 20042/3/1/1/94
….”A move, in effect, from expressionist art to an art of implementation.”
Another version of same article.20042/3/1/1/96 3 of 4….”Ian Breakwell in an article in Art Monthly which covers his two placements with the Department of Health refers to “a more meaningful (‘successful’) placement, because it brought bigger issues to the surface, even if in the process it caused trouble and turmoil.In the placement the ‘artwork’ is not the end product but the whole process.”
So APG not only sought a new role for artists in society but the place of new media, time-based art such as film , video and performance -You forget how new this was, that this kind of work was not shown in galleries at the time, it had to fight for its justification and its place as art.
20042/3/1/3/15 7 of 18 .”All Fine & Context” Roger Coward. From Art-Making Methodology 1.
…….”Thus art becomes a realistically based ‘wish’ or ‘intention’ for the future.
In this way I am showing what I see going on in the world now.
I am showing what an artist can do with his skills to take some of the ugliest processes in the direction of growth.
I am showing how his skills relate to those of other people who are working with different skills for a better world.
With my fine artists ‘intuition’-if I have one……I am showing the relationship between pain ignorance violence and the ‘aesthetic’ as it exists now.
And through the structuring of my images I am helping to fulfill my intention towards the process of change(growth)as it continue from the present into the future.”
20042/3/1/3/15 9 of 18 . “v) Artists Placement Group makes it possible.”
…..”The commitment to the ‘fine artist’, however, has been to a kind of person rather than to a producer of images.”Incidental Person’ or ‘New Professional’ have been attempts to describe the sort of person who is long Time Based, is aware of process and structure and who is capable of crossing categories between areas of knowledge as well as artistic practice- not that all APG artists feel a need to produce an object at all since they are more concerned with process.”
…To be effective in an industrial or governmental context the ‘artist’ must be free to respond to the situation he finds himself in.To enable this to happen the ‘artist’ has a PLACEMENT on an “OPEN BRIEF” which is distinct from being ‘employed’ to do a job for somebody else (as a graphic designer in advertising would) and distinct from being ‘patronized’ to make an arty object to decorate the board room or the shop stewards mantlepiece. Instead the APG artist goes in to the context to respond to it and to work in it as a ‘co-worker in a joint enterprise’ and any art-work that may emerge comes out of that inter-action.
These are possible approaches for the artist going into placement with an industry or organisation. I like the idea of working with theses directly as a recreated experiment.
…” Interest of the Individual may be in any field, but these my be summarised, for example, as :-
Interest in structures of materials
Interest in structures of compounds, products
Interest in variable structures based on 1 and 2, technical questions.
Interest in structure of organisation
Interest in negotiable new forms of (company) manifestations
Interest in forms of transmitting information. ”
