LIAM GILLICK
2015-10-19Combining works from the 1990s with new production this exhibition plays with the way groups develop their ideas in cohesion and tension with the individual. Drawing on anthropologist Mary Douglas’s interpretations of sociologist Ludwik Fleck, Liam Gillick juxtaposes works that were produced in collective environments in the 1990s with new structures and a film produced alone. As such, the exhibition reflects on the contradictions that arise between the individual and the group in relation to the production of art.
The title of the exhibition refers to Fleck and Douglas’s investigation of the way a thought style links group members via their shared ideas, how they communicate and the methods they employ. These ideas affect the art’s subjectivity and are reflected in a series of new text works.
A central work in the exhibition, A broadcast from 1887 on the Subject of our Time, was originally produced in 1996 and involved a broadcast directed towards a utopian community. The content of the broadcast is taken from Edward Bellamy’s book Looking Backward (1887) – which includes an account of a radio broadcast before the invention of the medium.
Opposite – When Do We Need More Tractors? Five Plans, 1999
Exhibition runs through to November 22nd, 2015
Maureen Paley
21 Herald Street
London
E2 6JT
