Jill Randall – Tate Project

On Thursday, I had a meeting with John Hill, Education Officer at Flat Time House, the artist John Latham’s house in Peckham, to discuss the possibility of a University of Salford student Live Site Project at Flat Time House.

This is a special opportunity to undertake work in an internationally-reknowned gallery and project space in London at the former home and studio of one of Britain’s most influential artists.There is currently much excitement and reappraisal of Latham’s work and the work of the APG, now  recognised as a major influential force in the development of current art practice.

FTHo is a gallery, project space and former home and studio of the John Latham Archive, and connects to the APG and the Tate Archive, as Latham was one of the founders and very influential artists of the APG, undertaking a number of placements with industry and government organisations.

We discussed the possibility of a 2-day ‘Residency’  in March 2013 for a small group of 6-8 Level 5 (2nd year) B.A. Visual Arts students at the University of Salford, who would have the opportunity to respond to this unique site and archive, individually or collaboratively, and then make work over the 2 days in John Latham’s former artists studio, fully documenting the work produced, and the experience. John Hill would begin the project with a talk and tour of FTHo, introducing John Latham’s work and ideas, and the resources available .

This will appeal to well-motivated and independent students interested in working primarily with Site, Art/Science, books, language and bookworks, with an emphasis on conceptual work. Work can be produced in any media or combination of media-Its important  that all activities undertaken, even thinking, must be documented in some way.

There will intentionally be no brief whatsoever set, as the point of the project is for students to make a personal response which begins with Flat Time House.

Jill Randall is interested in restaging some of APG’s ideas, and would like to trial the idea of the “Open Brief/Not Knowing”, which is the philosophy behind their industry and government placements. Its important, however, that any interested students do some preliminary reading and research into John Latham’s work, and previous shows and project at FTHo to set the context.