staff profiles

Exhibition

Printed Matter NYC

This exhibition, publication and website contribute to the critical debates around conceptual art and neo-conceptual art in this country and abroad. The project hypothesizes that the "reading list" is a formal structure through which meaning is made. It visually represents both a cognitive map of each artist's conceptual/intellectual concerns, as well as being a work - a signature - in the sense of the way I am presenting each artist's work in the exact form in which they choose to give it to me (typed, handwritten, their choice of style, format & categorisation for their selected publications). I view my concept of presenting an artist's, art historian's, curator's, filmmaker's and writer's choice of books in a bookstore/library as a subtle but radical intervention, that will make a sound contribution to critical debate. The proposal is theoretically underpinned by current curatorial and art practice, the work of Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Jorge Luis Borges, Douglas Crimp and others. All bibliographies will be published on the world wide web at www.informationasmaterial.com and in further publications. I'm sorry to say there is no artist's fee available for participating in the project. The determining factor that informed the initial process of selection was to choose artists/art historians/curators/filmmakers/psychoanalysts/writers whose own practice informs the context of this work. I am making work out of the artists'/art historians'/curators'/filmmakers'/psychoanalysts'/writers' references when it is in fact their work that provides the references for this exhibition. Their ideas becomes the machine that makes my art. The objectification of choice allows me to make my own conceptual objects. I have chosen the method of selection. My rationale for the project's current expansion was to invite previous contributors to nominate further possible contributors.

01/01/2002

01/01/1900

P.Buchler, Mark Dion, Susan Hiller,Joseph Kosuth, Chrristian Boltanski, Daniel Buren, Lawrence Wiener, Thomas A.Clark, Langlands and Bell,

Simon Morris

NYC, London, Sheffield

Art Monthly 231."Your show sounds very interesting, and I take a personal pleasure in seeing an exhibition taking this form now." - Joseph Kosuth. "It is an excellent project." - Mark Dion a range of individual responses to bibliomania: " the artist, Sharon Kivland interspersed publications by Jacques Lacan with female authors of detective fiction. "the artist/curator Jeremy Millar didn't want to make any editorial decisions and so included absolutely everything on his and his girlfriend's bookcase. "the artist Mark Dion's list reflected the duality within his work of natural history and critical art theory. "the artist Matthew Higgs reflected his own practice by selecting someone else's list of published work. He choose the entire published works of Billy Childish. " the artist Neil Cummings constructed a bibliography around collecting and how we relate to our object filled world. " the artist Andrea Fraser exposed the machinations of the publishing industry by constructing a critical list of publications about publishing. " the artist Joseph Kosuth acknowledged his fascination with language by splitting his list into one for dictionaries and one for books. " the artist Haim Steinbach's list reflected how his practice is located in the everyday. He nominated books on every diverse subject, the imaginable and the unimaginable, from Roman bricks and tiles, skyscrapers, trains, spiders, Pepsi, mirrors, shoes, rodents, and titles such as: 'The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet' & 'Kinkycrafts: 99 Do-it-yourself S/m Toys for the Kinky Handyperson'. " the American academic writer, Liz Dalton has decided to submit two annotated bibliographies on subjects of interest to her. The first on the idea of benevolence (focusing on 19th century social reformers) and the second on the role of women in early aviation (because of what the subject tells us about a variety of modernism's and nationalism's). " the French photohistorian and critic Emmanuel Hermange has constructed a bibliography of imaginary publications. He researched and constructed a bibliographical  index of existing examples of fictitious references which were placed in catalogues and library indexing systems in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. " the artists Alexander and Susan Maris selected 33 books 'by' John Cage and four books about him. They decided their list should contain: 1) books we have read (in the past) 2) books we are reading (in the present) 3) books we shall read (in the future). Their comprehensive list of Cage books was also composed in a manner they thought Cage would have probably found amusing. " The French conceptual artist, Marylene Negro interested in collections and disapearances has just sent me a copy of 'Le Livre'. A solid wooden book that doesn't open. A book doesn't start or finish. Mallarme searched his whole life for that dream - of a book that wasn't realised, to become permanent, completely free of its author, from objects in the world and difficulties. 'Le Livre' identifies with the object that it is. The only content is the presence of an infinite problem, it continues to be an impossible document. " Paul O'Neill is a PhD student at the University of Middlesex, London. He is also an Irish artist and curator, and Artistic Programmer of MultiplesX, An artists editions organisation, Ireland. Paul O'Neill came up with the excellent idea to invite all of the academic staff and MA/ PhD students from the Dept. of Spatial Culture, Middlesex University to contribute to a collective bibliography. Paul invited each contributor to construct a reading list/bibliography of the essential textual material that most effectively represents a spatial culture, or a specific aspect of a spatial discourse. The individual submissions were then collated into a collective response. The aim was to portray the issues of space and its place in contemporary critical culture. Paul's collective response included contributions from: Paul Antick, Monica Blake, Sarah Chaplin, Barry Curtis, Sheila Jolly, Elizabeth Lebas, Sandy McCreery, Aoife MacNamara, Simon Ofield, Paul O'Neill, Paul Overy, Haecheon Park, Adrian Rifkin, Laura Ruggeri, Anna Steiner, collectively the Tutors, Lecturers and Students from M.A Spatial Culture at Middlesex University, London. The lists can be minimal or comprehensive. They have ranged in the past from 18 to 540 publications. Some contributors reflect their practice by choosing publications that have informed their work whilst others reflect their practice by constructing lists that are part of their practice.