Glasgow International 2010 Jim Lambie Teachers' Resource

Teaching Resource

JIM LAMBIE www.glasgowinternational.org

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For Teachers

Getting Started

These teaching resources have been aimed at S2 students, though much of the content could apply to years: P7, S1, S3, S4 and S5.

Please use the cursor keys to navigate.

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Contents

Introduction About the Artist The Project Discussion Activities Art Term Glossary Contacts and Links

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JIM LAMBIE

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For Teachers

Introduction

Visual art happens all year round in Glasgow but for two weeks every two years, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art puts it firmly in the spotlight.

From artists’ studios through to major museums, by way of a vast range of venues new and old, the Festival is the perfect moment to get to know more about contemporary art and how and where it takes place in Glasgow.

Packed with events, talks and tours as well as major world-class exhibitions some by artists living in the city and others by leading international figures, the Festival is Glasgow’s art scene at its liveliest and best.

Jim Lambie Metal Urbain Sat 17th April 2010 — Mon 3rd May 2010 14 — 20 Osborne Street, Trongate, G1

‘The UK’s best visual art festival’ The Guardian, December 2009 There is an orchestration of elements in every installation – we could view the floor as a bass line that underpins everything else Jim Lambie

For GI 2010 The Modern Institute presented a solo exhibition by Jim Lambie. The exhibition was the inaugural exhibition in the new gallery space situated in Osborne Street. www.themoderinstitute.com Themes: colour, materialism, transformation, surface, op art, abstraction, installation, site-specific, popular culture, sensory, music, popular culture, ready-mades, music, architecture, multiples, surface, the everyday, the environment, identity, portraiture, landscape

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Metal Urbain, 2010 .All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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For Teachers

Jim Lambie was born in Glasgow in 1964 and lives and works in Glasgow.

Jim Lambie is recognised for producing unique environments and vivid sculptural installations created from the ephemera of modern life, working with items immediately to hand, as well as those sourced in secondhand and hardware stores, he resurrects record decks, speakers, clothing, fashion accessories, doors and mirrors to form sculptural elements in larger compositions.

Jim Lambie is well known for his hypnotic vinyl taped floors, which work as a kaleidoscopic platform for his sculptures.

Jim’s love and passion for music frequently informs and inspires his artworks, which are often named after his favourite songs and bands. A former musician, Lambie was once part of a band called ‘The Boy Hairdressers’ a pre-curser to ‘Teenage Fanclub’. No longer in a band, Lambie extends his passion for music by DJ’ing at bars and clubs on a regular basis. Lambie is interested in the ability that music has to

About the Artist

transform your state of mind. This concept is reflected in the way he uses his sculptural installations and taped floors to transform the spaces of galleries. Lambie prioritises sensory pleasure over intellectual response. He selects materials that are familiar and have a strong personal resonance, so that they offer a way into the work as well as a springboard to a psychological space beyond.

Lambie prioritises sensory pleasure over intellectual response. He selects materials that are familiar and have a strong personal resonance, so that they offer a way into the work as well as a springboard to a psychological space beyond.

Lambie’s works are often devised in relation to a specific space, where they are shaped by a series of intuitive and improvisatory decisions. This enables him to work in tune with the qualities of his materials and the parameters of the existing architecture.

In 2005 Jim Lambie was nominated for the Turner Prize. He was selected to represent Scotland at the Venice biennale in 2003.

Having exhibited widely in Europe, America and the Far East, Jim Lambie’s first major solo Scottish show, at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, was commissioned by the GI festival in 2008.

(Selected Solo Exhibitions include: 2003, Male Stripper, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 2005 Concentrations 47: Jim Lambie, Thirteenth Floor Elevator, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, The Byrds, The Modern Institute, Glasgow, 2006, Directions - Jim Lambie, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., 2008 Unknown Pleasures, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Eight Miles High, ACCA, Melbourne, Forever Changes, Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow, Edinburgh International Festival Secret Affair, Inverleith House, Edinburgh and RSVP: Jim Lambie, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

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For Teachers

For GI 2010 The Modern Institute presented Jim Lambie’s solo exhibition Metal Urbain.

In the main gallery space seven suits of Knights’ amour sit upon concrete and metal plinths that rise up out of the floor like platforms. Each suit has either been crushed alone or with household objects – cookers, coffee tables, ladders and a filing cabinet have all been used.

The combinations suggest abstract relationships: the crushed cookers are like speakers, the work is called Knight Club. The combination of the filing cabinet and knight is called Knight Shift. Each of the sculptures contains its own microenvironment – a night vision. Knight Light, a central sculpture in the exhibition illuminates this world – and the visions it contains.

The Project

On the walls a series of metal paintings hang like stars across a night sky. Aluminium sheets have all been bent by hand, like peeling billboard posters they suggest other realities hidden beneath them, expanding into other places beyond, like an inner world.

The space on which we walk is a metal floor work, which recalls minimalist sculpture such as works by Carl Andre or Donald Judd. Made from metals in various finishes, it’s like a set of stepping-stones.

The polished metals reflect the sculptures and sky like puddles, photographic moments in the urban stroll. The final work we encounter is entitled Metal Urbain, a combination of folded metal sheets which form plinths on top which are dismembered elements of a suit of armour cast into concrete. It is here that the disjointed rhythms of Metal Urbain can be recalled and the reality of the exhibition space and the outside world meet – the city outside and Metal Urbain, a vision of knights and night times.

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Metal Urbain, 2010. All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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DISCUSSION

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Discussion Questions 01/02/03

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Discuss the terms ‘ready-made’ and ‘popular culture’. How do these terms relate to the artist’s work?

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Discuss the use of ‘ready-

mades’ within an artwork.

Do you think the use of non- traditional art materials within an artwork is an acceptable one?

Can you think of reasons to why the artist deliberately chooses to work with ready- made objects?

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Discuss what art is and what art is not, can you give examples? Who decides what we call art? Is this decision influenced by history or modern culture?

Does his choice of materials affect the value and the way in which you engage with the works?

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The Byrds (Night Owl v Day Glo) 2005. Ceramic owl, oil paint, spray cans. Height 132cm; the length and depth dimensions are variable. All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

The Byrds (Bingo Wings) 2005. Handbags, ceramic bluebird, paint, handbag in paint. 111x117x234 cm All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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Discussion Questions 04/05/06

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Contemporary art is often concerned with concepts and contemporary thoughts and ideas rather than being based exclusively on the aesthetic of the work.

Contemporary art is often used by artists as a vehicle to talk about societal issues and ideas that concern them.

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Is it important to you that a work of art can communicate an

idea, or a message about the

world you live in? Or are you more concerned with how that works looks?

Many contemporary art-making practices raise questions around the creation process of artworks, e.g. who owns the idea?

Should the artist always be involved in the fabricating of an artwork? Where do you think the art exists?

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Are there any clues hidden within Jim Lambie’s work that help viewers interpret and unlock the narrative? Are these clues represented by the objects, materials or particular symbols used by the artist?

Is it in the idea, in the process or in the final product? Is it important for the artist to be present at every stage of the work?

In what situation should an artist call in another person to help create the work?

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Psychedelic Soul Stick 64 2007. 2 ankle bracelets, 1 marlboro lite packet, T-shirt sleeve, coloured thread, bamboo, wire.

107x9x7cm. All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd.

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Discussion Questions 07/08/09

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Do you think colour has meaning in art or is it simply a matter-of-fact element of the work?

Discuss the use of colour in this artist’s work and how it makes you feel. Is colour an integral element in the work of this particular artist?

Does the use of colour create any effect within the work? If so, how would you describe it?

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Can you describe the role of colour in different aspects of life? How do we experience colour?

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Discuss the terms ‘Abstraction’ and ‘Op Art’. How does Lambie use them within his work, and what effect do you think he is trying to create?

If the artist had chosen to work with neutral colours would this choice have altered your experience of the work, if so describe how?

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Sonic Reducer 3 2008. Concrete block, album covers. 35.5x35.5x35.5cm.

All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster

P.I.L. 2006. Cigarette butts, sunglasses, shirt, record sleeves, cement, mirrored plinth.

33x33x137.5cm. All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

Kinda Blue 2008. Wooden door, gloss paint, door knobs. 210 x 95 x 80cm All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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Discussion Questions 10/11/12

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How important do you think it is to name a piece of work?

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Does it change how you feel about the work when you read the title? Does it enhance or limit your experience of the

work?

Can the title explain anything

about the actual work?

If the artist has chosen not to

title their work why might

this be?

Does the work interact well with the space it is in? Is the presentation of the work within the space well considered?

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Does the particular environment add to the impact of the work of this artist?

Can you describe how you think the work has been made?

Can you explain the techniques that have been applied to create the pieces?

Could this work be put anywhere else?

Describe the ways in which the artist has transformed or changed the gallery space?

How would you would feel in these transformed spaces?

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The Byrds (5th Dimension) 2005. Wood, black t-shirts. 129x326x2cm.

All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

By Way of the Drum 2005. Stilletos, window lintel, black pudding, gloss paint. 314x33x24cm.

All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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ACTIVITIES

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Activity 01

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Jim Lambie’s GI 2010 exhibition ‘Metal Urbain’ is a re-imagined vision of the urban environment from the artists’ personal perspective. The work describes a night walk through a cityscape, complete with its peeled fly posters, wet ground and with the concrete monoliths that rise from the ground.

Imagine a familiar landscape Where would this be? What are the main characteristics of that particular setting? Is it a natural or man-made environment? Write down your thoughts in a notebook or sketchbook.

What are the predominant physical features and materials of that particular landscape, e.g. concrete, window, doors, metal, glass, bricks and advertisements? Write a list of the predominant elements and materials within your chosen landscape. Describe the atmosphere of your chosen environment in the same way, e.g. energetic, noisy, and busy?

How could you take these elements, physical and atmospheric, from your chosen landscape and present them in a new way, in an artwork, e.g. how would you describe water, could you use a mirror or a piece of tinfoil?

How would you describe the moon, could it be a bright disco-ball or a household bulb?

How would your personality impact upon your choices? Do your best to ensure that your artwork, be it a sculpture, an abstract installation encapsulates the spirit of you.

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Get Back 2008. Fabric, wood, training shoes, gloss paint.193x125x70cm.

All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

Blank Generation 2001. Mirror, paint, tape. Dimensions variable (installed on wall) All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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Activity 02

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Jim Lambie uses his love of music frequently to inspire and inform his work. The titles of his work come from the names of his favourite songs and bands, e.g. ‘Rock Me, Move Me’, ‘Motorhead’, ‘Frankie Teardrop’, ‘The Doors’, ‘Goo Goo Muck’, ‘Funkadelic’.

Write down a list of your favourite songs. Choose the song title that you’d like to work with. Using Jim Lambie as an inspiration, focus in on the title of the song. In your notebook, jot down ways that you think you could visually articulate that particular song. Refer to some of the song lyrics to help you come up with visual ideas.

Discuss your thoughts further with your tutor.

Transform a low-cost readymade object, or combinations of objects using bold colour and inexpensive surface treatments, e.g. glitter, sequins, tape, rubber bands and coloured wool. Transform your object, but without disguising its original function.

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Ska’s Not Dead 2001. Turntable, glitter, glove, mixed media. 36 x 36 x 72cm All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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Activity 03

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Jim Lambie frequently uses domestic objects within his works, e.g. chairs, cookers, doors and ornaments.

Photograph your own domestic objects or create a bank of images from magazine or newspapers featuring, e.g. doors, chairs, ornaments, windows and mirrors.

Ensure that you collect more than just one cutting of each object, e.g. lots of types of chairs, lots of doors, lots of windows, lots of washing machines and cookers.

Make a series of images, where you collage these cuttings together to create different ideas for a Jim Lambie style sculpture and or installation. Be inventive, experiment with combining types of objects in their existing forms, but also test out what happens when you remove sections of an object, e.g. chair legs. Then try and morph these deconstructed chairs with other chairs.

Remember to think of your sculpture in a practical way. Imagine if you were actually going to physically install it in a gallery space, what considerations would you have to make, e.g. could it sit on a floor space without falling over? Would it be light enough to suspend from a ceiling?

Write your thoughts and suggestions for install in your sketchbook next to your collaged images

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Untitled 2007. Wooden chairs, gloss paint. 87x200x125cm. Jim Lambie All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

Danceteria VII 2006. Broken mirror pieces, chair, handbag, glue. 125x88x47cm.

All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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Activity 04

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Can you think of a place where you could dramatically change the atmosphere of the space through the use of colour? This location could be a natural or man-made environment, e.g. it could be your local park or countryside. It could be an area within your school or community centre. Think about how you could replace the existing palette of your chosen environment with bright saturated colours and pattern.

Record all your thoughts in a notebook or sketchbook.

Go online and select images of generic indoors and outdoors locations, using Jim Lambie’s use of colour and patterns. Manipulate your chosen images with Photoshop.

Alternatively photocopy and enlarge indoor or outdoor environments found in old newspaper or magazine images. Photocopy images in black and white, allowing you to introduce your own applications of colour.

Create a series of experiments where you test out different ways of introducing colour, e.g. remove sections of the image and place, attach coloured and patterned paper within the cut sections. Can you apply colour directly to the surface of the images using paint and other coloured art medium.

Finally, can you come up with a musically inspired title for your Jim Lambie photo-shopped or photocopied environments?

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Untitled 2009. Mirror, enamel paint photographic print collage. 4 ft x 4 ft All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster

Untitled 2008. collage with oil painting and printed paper. 90.8x63.1x2.6cm.

All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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Activity 05

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Transform and combine a selection of ready-made objects and materials into a series of temporary miniature sculptural works, e.g. ornaments, toys, beads, bracelets, rubber bands, bobbles, buttons, feathers, Kirbys, paperclips, staples, safety pins and perhaps re-cycled items including straws, bottle tops, cartons, old bits of coloured paper and card.

Embellish and alter the surface texture of these objects through the imaginative use of some of the following, e.g. paint, glitter, sequins, rubber band, string, beads, coloured wool and thread.

With the above in mind consider whether or not your final piece will have some recognisable elements and whether it is figurative or abstract.

Be sure to document your miniature sculptures via photography or through a series of drawings.

Put this documentation in your sketchbook along with a written description explaining the reasons for choosing to work with items and describe the process of transformation.

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Fallen Angel 2008. Collage All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

The Fall (Dubulous) 2005, Enamel paint and photo collage on paper. 42x59.5cm.

All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

Stakka 1999. Album covers, tape, blank record sleeves, acrylic paint. 31x348x89cm.

All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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Activity 06

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Many of Jim Lambie’s artworks use the concept of one single component being repeated in order to make a whole entity, e.g. lots of chairs, lots of belts, lots of records, lots of buttons, lots of mirrors.

Make a series of small sculptures that has repeated elements, use some of the items suggested in activity 5 as a starting point. Experiment with different ideas, compare and contrast results.

Document and record your images via photography or through drawing. Write down any comments or thoughts you had whilst making the work, e.g. was it successful, if so why? Was it unsuccessful, if so why?

Discuss what it was like working with certain materials, did some work better than others?

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Seven and Seven Is or Sunshine Bathed the Golden Glow 2008. Wooden chairs, handbags, mirror, gloss paint. 216x350x270cm All images courtesy of the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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Art Term Glossary

Matter/Materials –

Monochrome: Monochrome means one colour. For centuries artists used different shades of brown or black Installation: ink to create monochrome pictures on paper.

Term used to describe mixed-media art works The ink would simply be more or less diluted to which occupy an entire room or gallery space and into which usually the spectator can enter. achieve the required shades. Shades of grey Some installations, however, are designed simply oil paint were used to create monochrome to be walked around and contemplated, or are paintings, a technique known as grisaille, from the French word gris meaning grey. In such so fragile that they can only be viewed from work the play of light and dark enabled the a doorway, or one end of a room. artist to define formand create a picture. In the twentieth century, with the rise of abstract Mackintosh: art many artists experimented with making Charles Rennie Mackintosh (June 7, 1868 – monochrome painting.

December 10, 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, watercolourist and sculptor. He was Minimalism: a designer in the Arts and Crafts movement Minimalism or Minimal art is an extreme form and also the main exponent of Art Nouveau of abstract art that developed in the USA in in the United Kingdom. He had a considerable the second half of the 1960s. It can be seen influence on European design. as extending the abstract idea that art should have its own reality and not be an imitation of some other thing. Minimal artists typically made works in very simple geometric shapes based on the square and the rectangle. Many Minimal works explore the properties of their materials.

There are strong links between Minimal and Conceptual art. Aesthetically, Minimal art offers a highly purified form of beauty. It can also be seen as representing such qualities as truth (because it does not pretend to be anything other than what it is), order, simplicity, harmony.

Media/Medium – White cube: Refers to a certain gallery aesthetic that was introduced in the early twentieth century in response to the increasing abstraction of modern art. With an emphasis on colour and light, artists from groups like De Stijl and the Bauhaus preferred to exhibit their works against white walls in order to minimise distraction.

The white walls were also thought to act as a frame, rather like the borders of a photograph.

A parallel evolution in architecture and design provided the right environment for the art. The white cube was characterised by its square or oblong shape, white walls and a light source usually from the ceiling.

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Art Term Glossary

Deconstruction: A form of criticism, which involves discovering, recognising and understanding the underlying and unspoken and implicit - assumptions, ideas and frameworks of cultural forms such as works of art. First used by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1970s, deconstruction asserts that there is not one single intrinsic meaning to be found in a work, but rather many, and often they can be conflicting. Since Derrida’s assertions in the 1970s, the notion of deconstruction has been a dominating influence on many writers and conceptual artists.

Techniques – Conceptual Art: This term came into use in the late 1960s to describe a wide range of types of art that no longer took the form of a conventional art object. In 1973 a pioneering record of the early years of the movement appeared in the form of a book, Six Years, by the American critic Lucy Lippard. The six years were 1966-72.

The long subtitle of the book referred to socalled conceptual or information or idea art.

Conceptual artists do not set out to make a painting or a sculpture and then fit their ideas to that existing form. Instead they think beyond the limits of those traditional media, and then work out their concept or idea in whatever

materials and whatever form is appropriate.

They were thus giving the concept priority over the traditional media. Hence Conceptual art.

From this it follows that conceptual art can be almost anything, but from the late 1960s certain prominent trends appeared such as Performance (or Action) art, Land art, and the Italian movement Arte Povera (poor art). Poor here meant using low-value materials such as twigs, cloth, fat, and all kinds of found objects and scrap. Some Conceptual art consisted simply of written statements or instructions.

Many artists began to use photography, film and video. Conceptual art was initially a movement of the 1960s and 1970s but has been hugely influential since. Artists include Art & Language, Beuys, Broodthaers, Burgin, Craig-Martin, Gilbert and George, Klein, Kosuth, Latham, Long, Manzoni, Smithson.

Site Specific: Refers to a work of art designed specifically for a particular location and that has an interrelationship with the location. If removed from the location it would lose all or a substantial part of its meaning. Site-specific is often used of installation works, as in sitespecific installation, and Land art is site-specific almost by definition.

Materialism: Contemporary Visual Art – Term loosely used to denote art of the present day and of the relatively recent past, of an innovatory or avant-garde nature. In relation to contemporary art museums, the date of origin for the term contemporary art varies.

The Institute of Contemporary Art in London, founded in 1947, champions art from that year onwards. Whereas The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York chooses the later date of 1977. In the 1980s, Tate planned a Museum of Contemporary Art in which contemporary art was defined as art of the past ten years on a rolling basis.

Visual Language – Found Objects: A natural or man-made object (or fragment of an object) found (or sometimes bought) by an artist and kept because of some intrinsic interest the artist sees in it. Found objects may be put on a shelf and treated as works of art in themselves, as well as providing inspiration for the artist. The sculptor Henry Moore for example collected bones and flints which he seems to have treated as natural sculptures as well as sources for his own work. Found objects may also be modified by the artist and presented as art, either more or less intact as in the Dada and Surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp’s

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Art Term Glossary

readymades, or as part of an assemblage. As so often, Picasso was an originator, from 1912, when he began to incorporate newspapers and such things as matchboxes into his Cubist collages, and to make his Cubist constructions from various scavenged materials. Extensive use of found objects was made by Dada, Surrealist and Pop artists, and by later artists such as Carl Andre, Tony Cragg, Bill Woodrow, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Michael Landy among many others.

Ready Made: ‘Ready mades’ is the term used by the French artist Marcel Duchamp to describe works of art he made from manufactured objects. His earliest readymades included Bicycle Wheel of 1913, a wheel mounted on a wooden stool, and In Advance of the Broken Arm of 1915, a snow shovel inscribed with that title. In 1917 in New York, Duchamp made his most notorious readymade, Fountain, a men’s urinal signed by the artist with a false name and exhibited placed on its back. Later readymades could be more elaborate and were referred to by Duchamp as assisted readymades. The theory behind the readymade was explained in an article, anonymous but almost certainly by Duchamp himself, in the May 1917 issue of the avant-garde magazine The Blind Man run by Duchamp and two friends: ‘Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not

has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, and placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view created a new thought for that object.’ There are three important points here: first, that the choice of object is itself a creative act. Secondly, that by cancelling the ‘useful’ function of an object it becomes art.

Thirdly, that the presentation and addition of a title to the object have given it ‘a new thought’, a new meaning. Duchamp’s readymades also asserted the principle that what is art is defined by the artist. Duchamp was an influential figure in Dada and Surrealism, an important influence on Pop art, environments, assemblage, installation art, Conceptual art and much art of the 1990s such as YBA. (See also Postmodernism.)

Narrative: A narrative is simply a story. Narrative art is art that tells a story. Much of Western art has been narrative, depicting stories from religion, myth and legend, history and literature (see History painting). Audiences were assumed to be familiar with the stories in question. From about the seventeenth century genre painting showed scenes and narratives of everyday life. In the Victorian age, narrative painting of everyday life subjects became hugely popular and is often considered as a category in itself (i.e. Victorian narrative painting). In modern art,

formalist ideas have resulted in narrative being frowned upon. However, coded references to political or social issues, or to events in the artist’s life are commonplace. Such works are effectively modern allegories, and generally require information from the artist to be fully understood. The most famous example of this is Picasso’s Guernica.

Op Art: A major development in the 1960s of painting that created optical effects for the spectator.

These effects ranged from the subtle, to the disturbing and disorienting. Op painting used a framework of purely geometric forms as the basis for its effects and also drew on colour theory and the physiology and psychology of perception. Leading figures were Bridget Riley, Jesus Raphael Soto, and Victor Vasarely.

Vasarely was one of the originators of Op art.

Soto’s work often involves mobile elements and points up the close connection between Kinetic and Op art.

Multiples: Casting sculpture in bronze, and the various techniques of printmaking, have for many centuries made it possible to make multiple examples of a work of art. Each example of an edition of a print or a bronze is an authentic work of the artist, although there may be technical variations which might affect the

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Art Term Glossary

value. The number produced is usually strictly limited, mainly for commercial reasons but, in the case of etchings in particular, also for technical reasons etching plates wear very rapidly, so later impressions are inferior. About 1955, the artists Jean Tinguely and Agam, wanting to make their work more widely available, put forward the idea of very large, effectively unlimited, editions of works which could be sold very cheaply. It is they who seem to have invented the term multiple for such works, which would be made by industrial processes. The first multiples were eventually produced by the Denise René Gallery in Paris in 1962, and since then large numbers of artists have created multiples.

Interdisciplinary –

musical score of four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence (four minutes thirty three seconds is 273 seconds. The temperature minus 273 celsius is absolute zero). By the 1950s and 1960s visual artists and composers like were using kinetic sculptures and electronic media, overlapping live and pre-recorded sound, in order to explore the space around them. Since the introduction of digital technology sound art has undergone a radical transformation. Artists can now create visual images in response to sounds, allow the audience to control the art through pressure pads, sensors and voice activation, and in examples like Jem Finer’s ‘Longplayer’, extend a sound so that it resonates for a thousand years.

Public Art: Artwork that is in the public realm, regardless of whether it is situated on public or private property or whether it has been purchased with public or private money. Usually, but not always, the art has been commissioned specifically for the site in which it is situated. Monuments, memorials and civic statues and sculptures are the most established forms of public art, but public art can also be transitory, in the form of performances, dance, theatre, poetry, graffiti, posters and installations. Public art can often be used as a political tool, like the propaganda posters and statues of the Soviet Union or the murals painted by the Ulster Unionists in Northern Ireland. Public art can also be a form of civic protest, as in the graffiti sprayed on the side of the New York subway in the 1980s.

Sound Scape: Art about sound, using sound both as its medium and as its subject. It dates back to the early inventions of Futurist Luigi Russolo who, between 1913 and 1930, built noise machines that replicated the clatter of the industrial age and the boom of warfare, and subsequent experiments in the Dada and Surrealist movements. Marcel Duchamp’s composition Erratum Musical featured three voices singing notes pulled from a hat, a seemingly arbitrary act that had an impact on the compositions of John Cage, who in 1952 composed 4’ 33” a

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CONTACTS & LINKS

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Contacts & Links

Get involved!

The next edition of the festival is in 2012.

Stay in touch, we’d love to hear from you! www.glasgowinternational.org www.glasgowinternational.org/index.php/events/learn www.glasgowinternational.org/index.php/about/view/Goodbye_to_the_2010_Festival/

Contact Lesley Hepburn - Creative Learning and Education Officer lesley@glasgowinternational.org GI Office +44 (0)141 276 8382

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