Notes on Letters

WORDS / WORLDS: Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Practice

Date: 9 May 2013
Time: 1.30-5.30pm

9th May 2013 The Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster University: Centre for Performance and Practice

Convened to mark the appointment of Tim Etchells as Professor of Performance and Practice at LICA, Words / Worlds is an afternoon symposium focused on approaches to writing in an interdisciplinary context. The event takes its title from a two-part neon work All We Have is Words / All We Have is Worlds by Etchells, which quotes and then repeats with modification, a line from Samuel Beckett.
Beginning with a keynote paper/performance from Etchells, which opens questions relating his to text-work in different media, WORDS / WORLDS proceeds with panels and presentations from visual artists Martin John Callanan and Penny McCarthy, from curator Mathieu Copeland, from the novelist Tony White and from the performance maker and scholar Andrew Quick. WORDS / WORLDS celebrates the possibilities of a cross-disciplinary conversation between and about text-based work and writing. A statement by William Burroughs – that the purpose of writing is to make things happen – provides one point of departure for the discussions, which will see each of the participants touch upon key works and ideas from their practise as they think around texts and inter-texts, texts as interventions in, and transformations of, the world, texts as tests or probes of reality, and text as a tool for fragile and temporary world-building.

Free to attend
Organising departments and research centres: Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts

more info

(Im)material Labour, Art Exchange, Colchester

art exchange colchester

(IM)MATERIAL LABOUR
MONDAY 24 JUNE 2013 – SATURDAY 20 JULY 2013

(Im)material Labour explores our shifting position in an economically functioning society. From the systemisation of post-fordist labour through to the de-materialisation of the service sector, our patterns of working behaviour are constantly being reconfigured.

(Im)material Labour draws together the work of a number of artists who interrogate this phenomenon in light of the current economic climate. Seeking to decode and humanise the financial crisis through analytical ideas and research, the works on display often result in therapeutic and humorous outcomes.

The exhibition includes works by SUPERFLEX, Zachary Formwalt, Ignacio Uriarte, Martin John Callanan, Paul Westcombe and Arnaud Desjardin.

The exhibition will take place both onsite and offsite in a disused office block situated in Colchester Town. Curated by MA Critical Curating students Warren Harper, Matylda Taszycka and alumnus Jonathan Weston.

Curators Tour
Saturday 1 June, 1-2pm
Join the exhibition’s curators for a tour of (Im)material Labour at Art Exchange. To reserve your place, please email immaterial.labour@live.co.uk

Along Some Sympathetic Lines, Or Gallery, Berlin

Along Some Sympathetic Lines

Along Some Sympathetic Lines

Along Some Sympathetic Lines

Along Some Sympathetic Lines

Along Some Sympathetic Lines

23 February – 27 April 2013
Opening 7pm, 22 February 2013

Or Gallery, Oranienstr 37, Berlin 10999, Germany

Or Gallery is pleased to present Along Some Sympathetic Lines, an exhibition of artwork by London-based artist Martin John Callanan, and an archive project by curator Liz Bruchet. The exhibition considers the poetic possibilities of data and its documentation, and the tenuous process of making meaning.

Martin John Callanan is an artist researching an individual’s place within systems. Callanan generates and reworks photographs, letters and electronic data into evidence of exchanges – between the individual, the institution and the networks of power that intertwine them. The exhibition presents four of the artist’s series: The Fundamental Units, the result of amassing millions of pixels of data, to photographs, in microscopic detail far beyond the capacity of the human eye, the lowest monetary unit of each of the 166 active currencies of world, only to enlarge and print them to vast scale; Wars During My Lifetime, an evolving newspaper listing of every war fought during the course of the artist’s life; Grounds, an ongoing photographic archive which charts ‘important places’ in the world where security restrictions limit the image to the carpeted, tiled or concrete floors; and Letters 2004-2006, Callanan’s correspondence with various heads of states and religious leaders which implicate them in conversations that question their very rationale of their authority. These acts of excavating, accumulating and visualising data draw out the sympathetic aspects within documentation and in so doing, mark and disrupt the underlying power dynamics.

A second gallery features an archive project by London-based curator Liz Bruchet. The display of ephemera from the personal archive of the curator’s grandfather, a Canadian insurance salesman and aspiring radio presenter, takes its inspiration from a found audio recording – part monologue, part autobiography, and part radio show – made in 1974. Harnessing the impulses of the collector, archivist and biographer, the curator reasserts her role as custodian and caretaker to nurture narratives and give weight to the subjective remnants of one man’s life.

This exhibition is curated by Liz Bruchet.

The exhibition is possible with the generous support of Or Gallery, the National Physical Laboratory, and UCL European Institute.

With thanks to Galeria Horrach Moya, (Hiper)vincles, Whitechapel Gallery, Book Works, David Karl, and Pau Waelder.

Run of the Mill: A Brief History of Contemporary Art Production, Glenn Adamson and Julia Bryan-Wilson

Glenn Adamson and Julia Bryan-Wilson, in the essay Run of the Mill: A Brief History of Contemporary Art Production for Counter-Production part 3 (Generali Foundation) write about Letters 2004-2006:

Art today still negotiates global networks of power, and it does so through systems of production even more widely distributed than the one Vallance put into motion. The current context, of course, is different. As in so many other areas of art-making, artists today have much greater self-awareness when it comes to involving others in their work. Cultural Ties seems frankly naive in comparison with a recent work by the artist Martin John Callanan, entitled Letters 2004–2006. The premise was similar. Callanan sent a typed note to various political and religious leaders, reading only, “I respect your authority” or “When will it end?”. The responses he got are comparable to those Vallance elicited—mainly form letters, as well as a few personalized notes (usually either baffled, intrigued, or both). Yet if Vallance  extended an offer of universal friendship, Callanan instead addressed shadowy realms of power, expecting and getting no adequate reply. This shift from optimism to resignation captures a general change in tone when it comes to artistic production. In today’s hypernetworked society, “cultural ties” are all too evident; connection itself has become a primary mechanism of late capital.

Full essay in PDF

Transactions

TRANSACTIONS

Transactions
Curated by Marco Antonini & DETEXT

Cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy
Exhibition: November 8 – 30, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday November 8, 5-7pm

At a time when traditional economics seem to be losing credibility, Transactions opportunely explores the lapse between economists’ representations of the world and our daily experience. Featuring works that deal with everyday transactions and systems of bureaucracy, the exhibition probes the wrong assumptions and flawed hypotheses of today’s neo-liberal model. But rather than simply challenge economic fallacies, Transactions reveals the political and poetic possibilities of such gaps, errors and miscalculations.

Artists: A-153617 (Aníbal López), David Brooks, Martin John Callanan, Nemanja Cvijanovic, DETEXT, Caleb Larsen, Julien Previeux, Daniel Seiple & KUNSTrePUBLIK, Katarina Sevic, Santiago Sierra, Nedko Solakov and Nikola Uzunovski.

Transactions was organized by independent curator Marco Antonini and artist and economist Raúl Martínez (DETEXT). It was previously presented at the CCEG (Centro Cultural de España en Guatemala) in Guatemala City and Galería Horrach Moyá in Palma de Mallorca.

LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University School of the Arts
310 Dodge Hall, 2960 Broadway (at 116th Street), (212) 854-7641
Gallery Hours: Mon – Fri, 9am to 5pm
Closed on Saturday and Sunday

Again, A Time Machine, Edinburgh Printmakers

15 September – 3 November 2012,
A Book Works Touring Exhibition

Again, A Time Machine reappears at Edinburgh Printmakers, with the presentation of Make the Living Look Dead, The Wanderer (The Storage) by Laure Prouvost and A Poster Project by Jonathan Monk.

For Make the Living Look Dead, a selection of artists that we have worked with over the years were invited to make a new work on A4 paper as a contribution, intervention or fictionalisation for our archive. Each work plays with notions of time, and exposes the fragility of coherence inherent in the archive. Contributions range from original discarded material to found objects or fictionalised letters, as well as new work masquerading as past proposals or future projections of sequels, panegyrics or unfinished work. Particpating artists are: An Endless Supply, Steve Beard and Victoria Halford, Pavel Büchler, Martin John Callanan, Brian Catling, Adam Chodzko, Jeremy Deller, Mark Dion, Giles Eldridge, Ruth Ewan, Luca Frei, Dora García, Beatrice Gibson and Will Holder, Liam Gillick, Susan Hiller, Karl Holmqvist, Stewart Home, Hanne Lippard, Jonathan Monk, Bridget Penney, Sarah Pierce, Elizabeth Price, Laure Prouvost, Clunie Reid, John Russell, Slavs and Tatars, NaoKo TakaHashi, Nick Thurston, Lynne Tillman, Mark Titchner, Alison Turnbull, Eva Weinmayr, and Neal White.

This archival installation is accompanied by screenings of Laure Prouvost’s film The Wanderer (The Storage), first commissioned and shown at Spike Island; A Poster Project, a series of ten appropriated and reprinted posters by Jonathan Monk, commissioned by Book Works and participating venues on the touring show; and shown alongside artists’ books, posters and limited edition prints published by Book Works, and a showreel of images, film, video and sound recordings compiled by Karen Di Franco and James Brook.

Merkske at London Art Book Fair, Whitchapel Gallery, 21–23 September 2012

London Art Book Fair

Merkske will be with Slade Press for the fourth edition of The London Art Book Fair at the Whitechapel Gallery, it takes place from the 21–23 September 2012.

Merkske published Text Trends: Though Text Trends, Martin John Callanan deals with the spectacularization of information. Using Google data he explores the vast search data of its users. An animation takes the content generated by search queries and reduces this process to its essential elements: search terms vs. frequency searched for over time, presented in the form of a line graph, 16 of which are reproduced in this book.

London Open Whitechapel Gallery, London

This exhibition showcases the most dynamic work being made in London in 2012. Take a journey through a selection of the latest art trends and see potential stars of the future amongst 35 artists chosen by a panel of international artists, curators and collectors.

Political and social subject matter is a theme in many works. The show features artists using performance and DIY approaches to making work whilst others investigate kitsch, outsider art and countercultural groups. The exhibition includes Arnaud Desjardin’s live printing press, Leigh Clarke’s negative casts of masks of political figures often worn during demonstrations, Nicholas Cobb’s photographs showing fictitious model riot scenes at Bluewater shopping centre and Pio Abad’s work featuring Saddam Hussein’s gold taps printed on an imitation Versace silk scarf.

The London Open includes work in a diverse range of media from painting, sculpture, film, textile and photography to installation and performance. It includes Paul Westcombe’s intricate illustrations on takeaway coffee cups, Alice Channer’s body-based sculptures, Lucienne Cole’s pop culture-inspired performances and Martin John Callanan’s conceptual works, such as International Directory of Fictitious Telephone Numbers (2011) and Letters 2004-2006.

The London Open is a chance to see some of today’s most innovative artists. The Whitechapel Gallery’s open submission exhibitions have shown artists including Grayson Perry, Bob & Roberta Smith and Rachel Whiteread early in their careers.

Artists: Pio Abad, Peter Abrahams, Caroline Achaintre, Greta Alfaro, Sol Archer, Thomas Ball, Martin John Callanan, Dale Carney, Paul Carter, Alice Channer, Leigh Clarke, Nicholas Cobb, Lucienne Cole, Beth Collar, Chris Coombes, Shona Davies, Jon Klein & Dave Monaghan, Arnaud Desjardin, Sarah Dobai, Shaun Doyle and Mally Mallinson, Ana Genoves, Mark Harris, Emma Holmes, John Hughes, Nikolai Ishchuk, Robert Orchardson, Heather Phillipson, Ruth Proctor, Amikam Toren, Charlie Tweed, Roy Voss, Paul Westcombe and Rehana Zaman.

Selectors: Patricia Bickers, editor of Art Monthly; artist Rodney Graham; collector Jack Kirkland; curator Marta Kuzma; and Whitechapel Gallery curator Kirsty Ogg.

Martin John Callanan will also have a Performance on 5 July

Transactions, Centro Cultural de España en Guatemala, La Ciudad de Guatemala

Transactions, Centro Cultural de España en Guatemala, La Ciudad de Guatemala

Participan: A-153167 (Anibal Lopez), David Brooks, Martin John Callanan, Nemanja Cvijanovic, Detext, Caleb Larsen, Liz Magic Laser, Julien Previeux, Daniel Seiple & Kunst Re-Publik, Katarina Sevic, Santiago Sierra, Nedko Solakov, Nikola Uzunovski y otros.
Curaduría: Raúl Martínez y Marco Antonini

Entendiendo el arte como otra forma de intercambio, esta exposición explora los procesos invisibles, errores de cálculo deliberados y verdades encubiertas del modelo de producción capitalista. En un momento en que este discurso parece incuestionable, Transacciones ahonda precisamente en las contradicciones y fisuras de nuestro modelo económico, convirtiéndolas en un espacio de trabajo y lucha política.

Los artistas incluidos en esta muestra cuestionan la “lógica” que gobierna los procesos económicos, exponiendo los límites legales y éticos del actual modelo neoliberal a través de lagunas legales y vacíos institucionales. Conscientes de las dificultades de evadir las estructuras económicas, muchos de ellos las adoptan como su hábitat natural y campo de batalla.

Transactions, Centro Cultural de España en Guatemala, La Ciudad de Guatemala

“Vexatious applications”

Ben Worthy at UCL’s Constitution Unit just sent me the transcript of a speech about the UK Freedom of information Act Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer gave at the British Academy in February 2006, which makes reference to my Letters:

We have seen a vast number of requests to find out information about issues which really do add value to people’s lives, or to the sum of human knowledge, or to research. And making a positive contribution to the quality, accuracy and completeness of public debate. This is exactly why we brought in this legislation.

However, it is also true, inevitably, that this culture is being undermined by requests under the Act which arguably do not impact so positively – like what a central government department spends on toilet paper or make-up, or whether written proof can be provided under the Act of a Minister’s existence.

Responsible users of the Act and supporters of the legislation would surely agree that these sorts of requests are frivolous, and sometimes even vexatious, and that spending time answering them is not how public resources ought to be used.

The Information Commissioner has made his position abundantly clear. He has said that claims that are ‘manifestly unreasonable’ should be resisted under section 14 of the Act – claims which would serve no public good or impose substantial burdens on the financial and human resources of public authorities.

My department will be issuing guidance complementing that from the Information Commissioner, to help public authorities handle these types of requests.

I don’t believe this is a concern in terms of requests from the academic community – but it is a serious issue for the operation of Freedom of Information as a whole.

Your Products Are of Use

Your Products Are of Use

On 1 January 2008, letters were posted to companies who’s products were present at my London residence. The letters, addressed to the chief executive, stated, “Your products are of use“. Replies, and full list of companies, recorded here.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

At the Fourteenth Ministerial Council Meeting of The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Chairman Ambassador Bertrand de Crombrugghe, gave an address to representatives of participating States at the Hofburg on 21 December 2006, in which he stated:

By the way, and here I open a parenthesis, one of the pleasures of the Chairmanship is to receive all kinds of mail, some less related to the OSCE than others, some funnier than others. At the very beginning of 2006, I received a letter that I promised myself I would share with you in due course.

It is from a certain Mr. Martin John Callanan in London. I have no clue who this chap is or what his connection to the OSCE might be. His letter reads very simply: “Dear Chairman, I respect your authority.” Wonderful! How did the chap get this into his mind, I truly wondered! It seemed like a promising start to me, but I can assure you, it only inspired a short and wild dream, nothing more. I did not divulge it early in this Chairmanship. I feared I might be misunderstood.

The full speech as PDF

Confirmation

Tim Etchells writes about Letters 2004-2006:

…The desperate dryness and bureaucracy of the responses from Buckingham Palace through the Houses of Parliament contain a kind of residual melancholy, with the entities compelled by law to respond to a request that is effectively meaningless. I think what’s beautiful about his work is the utter blankness of the statements or questions he employs – there’s a kind of monosyllabic theatre to them, which seems far from the extended or baroque forms of letter-writing, video and telephone pranksterism we’re more or less drowning in these days…

read the full review

Top