Jill Randall – Tate Project

Today I looked in detail at an important article about APG in ‘Studio International’ magazine – ‘APG:The Individual and the Organisation. A Decade of Conceptual Engineering’ by John A. Walker from 1976. As the magazine is too frail to photocopy, I spent a long time reading and copying out relevant passages.I realise a lot of the contemporary press releases and statements about the APG quote from this article, which eloquently describes the APG in its first line as “The visionary, ongoing project”. The whole magazine issue was devoted to ‘Art & Social Purpose–again a new term to describe what was then a new kind of art. TGA 20042/5/2/3 Artist Placement Group ‘Studio International: Journal of Modern Art’, Volume 191, Number 980

Walker explains John Latham’s time theories-that industry and government are concerned only with the short-term future and immediate goals, with a ‘limited time-base’. As a result human evolution is reduced to the purely economic and expedient. Crucial developments take place over much longer periods of time.

…”APG is therefore an organisation specifically concerned with the future rather than the present or past.It is a kind of research and development unit in the field of art. In its concern for the future, in being ahead of current thought, APG pushes the concept ‘avant-garde’ to a literal conclusion..”

..”Latham cites a number of reasons why artists are considered suitable as personnel:they already operate on a longer time-base than other groups in society;they are skilled in handling conceptually unfamiliar material;and they are noted for their independence and creativity.Since their activity is ‘undefined in its own terms’ artists can communicate to many different levels within a hierarchy. As ‘outsiders’ they constitute a third force:neither management nor work force, neither left nor right…”

…”The artist’s function is to serve as a catalyst for change, to form a kind of licensed opposition situated within the system. The artist’s goals must remain distinct from those of the organisation itself and he must retain an anonymous status throughout each placement.”

…”Sceptics have claimed APG is a failure because some placements ended in acrimony between artists and organisations, but such judgements leave out of account the value of the lessons learnt by both sides.”.

..”The fact that APG operated at boardroom level provoked adverse criticism on the grounds of elitism (the danger of artists identifying themselves with the ruling class rather than the workers on the shop floor).APG’s position is one of realism:in the present society it is decision-making that counts…”

…”During the second half of the sixties numerous artists became convinced that their practice should be extra -studio, extra-gallery. APG’s axiom, ‘context is half the work’, was a key contribution to this change in attitude.

…the industrial setting caused some artists to change their habitual means of expression, but more importantly the context and audience determined the form and type of work produced. In general the fact that the context was experienced over a lengthy period of time and the fact that no particular works had been commissioned caused a shift of emphasis from artistic product to process, from physical object to concept.”

TGA 20042/6/1/4 . Artist Placement Group. Promotional material relating to ‘The Incidental Person Approach to Government’
1977-1978. Folder 2/3 Seminars at RCA and Whitechapel. 1977-78.
Press release from Whitechapel:-
“..APG works from a different principle: the concept of placement plus context, theory as practice..”

The whole concept of an artistic practice which integrated theory and practice began with APG – they had a profound effect on the development of conceptual art .The whole notion pf presenting your ‘research’, data, raw material as art – because you are an artist -began with them. Its a form of presentation, a form of practice which we readily accept and take for granted. I also think the idea of the integration of theory and practice  in contemporary fine art practice- something which we actively promote and implement in the curriculum and philosophy of the B.A. Visual Arts Course at the University of Salford- owes much to the visionary APG stance.

..”.To APG, the status of the artist when working in any organisational structure…must be in the form of a negotiated placement, whereby the artist is able to work with the organisation and its communication networks as his basic material.Immediately, this raises problems, such as potential ‘interference’ with the organisation…As one stated:”If you (APG) are doing what I think you are doing, I wouldn’t advise my company to have anything to do with you. And if you aren’t, you’re not worth taking into account anyway.”
This is the quote I was looking for yesterday. It reveals the contradictions inherent in the APG objectives, and the near-impossibility of what they were trying to do.The fact that any placements were negotiated and implemented at all is amazing.