FTHo

By-passing gallery, auction house and market, The Wager invites visitors to partake in an evening of live speculation on the value of a theory, the value of speculation, and a theory of value.

The evening of events is based around The Wager, set in the Hand (formerly Latham's studio), and is a performance and tribute by artist Neal White to John Latham. The 'Wager' was conceived by John Latham with Neal White in 2005, and has been executed in 2009 by artist/lawyer Sarah Andrew with further assistance from the Noa Latham. Although technically a wager based on the notion that Flat Time Theory can be proved or disproved, it has been reduced to a legal bet, and welcomes challengers to provide evidence for or against these ideas, laid down in Latham's publications 'Time-Base and Determination in Events' (Stadtische Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, 1975) and 'Event Structure: approach to a basic contradiction' (Syntax, Calgary, 1981). The Wager also places the intuitive position (the Incidental Person) and the theoretical assertions of Flat Time, against a contemporary backdrop of economic crisis, fiscal turmoil, and uncertain futures based on economic projections. As a performance, the format becomes the theory itself, playing on the idea of time as a single moment; causing us to re-evaluate our idea of events and event structures. It's reasonable to assume that Latham would have been compelled by our contemporary moment: it draws attention to the way in which his ideas can be used to critique the wider performance of a society based on only one kind of value.

In the Mind (at the front of the house), The Office of Experiments has invited the artist Tina O'Connell to re-make a version of a series of works which began withIn Dublin, made during her residency at Irish Museum of Modern Art (1999). The piece was conceived at the beginning of Ireland's surge towards its Celtic Tiger status, and, through its form and material, questioned the permanence and role of sculpture in such times. In the new version, A Quantity of Easing (The Physics and Economics of Sculpture) the work is reduced in scale and set above a block of 'Frieze' magazines charting the rise and rise of the market through the 90s and the early part of this century. Using Latham's own techniques of destruction to parallel an inherent critique of the art market, a further twist is added by a sweepstake that allows viewers to place their own wager on the speed of the work's destruction.

Finally, to the rear of the house in The Office of Experiments, Even The Odds continues the theme of game-playing and gambling. Viewers can take part in a specially designed dice game: a gentle reminder of the event/no-event structure of Latham theory. With a soundtrack provided by the casinos of backwater Nevada, and a film reel shot by Latham in 1970, the viewer can win a limited edition pair of dice, a prize in exchange for a simple roll of the dice.