FTHo

Pavel Büchler, Eva Kot’átková, John Latham & Sarah Lucas with musical composition by John Cage

Curated by David Thorp

‘The status of art has become uncertain. At least, it is ambiguous. No one can say with assurance what a work of art is—or, more important, what is not a work of art. Where an art object is still present it is what I have called an anxious object: It does not know whether it is a masterpiece or junk.’ [1]

–Harold Rosenberg

 ANTS AND GRASSHOPPERS: reflections on the anxious object examines whether or not art can have the capacity to subvert, and indeed, create anxiety. Does the art object have that potential? Or is any anxiety that abounds rather an indication of its maker’s existential state? This exhibition queries whether the ‘psychophysical sculpture’ that is Flat Time House could be an example of an anxious object. Alongside the newly restored book sculpture that transects the façade of the building, is presented the work of three contemporary artists, and a musical composition by John Cage, for each of whom in different ways this condition is evident.

[1] Harold Rosenberg. On the De-Defininition of Art, University of Chicago Press,1983. p12

A publication to accompany the exhibition includes: Ants and Grasshoppers: reflections on the anxious object by the curator David Thorp; ‘Incidental Person’: John Latham and Flat Time House by cultural historian Robert Hewison, talking distinctly about John Latham’s ideas and the Bellenden Road Renewal Scheme from his forthcoming book, Passport to Peckham: Culture and Creativity in a London Village; a text In the Body of a Fish Without Water by artist Eva Kot’átková; an essay on Pavel Büchler by Nick Thurston; and lastly an essay on Sarah Lucas, A Woman’s World Is Never Done by Deborah Orr.

William Evans and Julia Crabtree in collaboration with Alice Hattrick are developing a major new project for Flat Time House’s garden. Over the next 6 months the group will ‘excavate’ the John Latham archive, as well as the garden itself, to consider the conceptual and material aspects of the site. In his younger days Latham was a market gardener and his lifelong passion for gardening is demonstrated at Flat Time House by the integration of a conservatory for planting into the studio he built for himself in 1985. Alongside research into Latham and the site, their research will consider permaculture, care, community, collective action, deep time, and issues of classification. They will use Latham's thinking on making and living, and his inquiry into time and ecology, to investigate the relationship of the garden and botany to authority and power. A public event in Summer 2021 will share their research.

Artist Kelly Lloyd is currently undertaking a research residency at Flat Time House focusing on John Latham’s collection of books. Latham’s library, which includes books intended for the making of artwork as well as for research purposes, has never been catalogued or the subject of sustained investigation. In addition to being interested in Latham's ideas concerning the intersection between time and value, Kelly Lloyd will explore the library with particular interest in Latham's personal books vs. books for work, marginalia and other physical interventions, and personal collections as forms of portraiture. Kelly Lloyd will present her research through a public outcome in September 2021.

/origin\forward/slash\ is the infrathin banner under which, behind which and through which a band of artists and philosophers are exploring their mutual fascinations and antagonisms with Martin Heidegger’s essay The Origin of the Work of Art (1950).

Currently on a remote placement due to Covid 19, the group have extended John Latham’s body-based floor plan of Flat Time House with an additional virtual room, ‘the other hand.’ Here they co-habit from time to time, using the web interface as a way of experimenting with formats for visual and verbal thinking together and adding victuals to their archive cabinet. 

The /origin\forward/slash\ group are Steven Claydon (Independent), Marie Hay (De Montfort University), Sacha Golob (Kings College, London), Jo Malt  (Kings College, London), Hester Reeve (Sheffield Hallam University), Mark Titmarsh  (University of Technology, Sydney), Georgios Tsagdis  (Leiden University | Erasmus University Rotterdam). This project is lead by Hester Reeve (Reader in Fine Art, Sheffield Hallam University) in association with The Centre for Philosophy and Visual Arts (Kings College London).

The /origin\forward/slash\ group will host a live online event in June 2021 and launch an exhibition at Flat Time House in 2022. 

On the occasion of the exhibition, Ants and Grasshoppers: reflections on the anxious object curated by David Thorp featuring Pavel Büchler, Eva Kot’átková, John Latham & Sarah Lucas with musical composition by John Cage.