British Art of the Long 1980s: Diverse Practices, Exhibitions and Infrastructures

311 Pages·2020·4.118 MB·English

by  Imogen Racz

British Art of the Long 1980s

British Art of the Long 1980s
Diverse Practices, Exhibitions and
Infrastructures
Imogen Racz
BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published in Great Britain 2020
Copyright © Imogen Racz, 2020
Imogen Racz has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. vii constitute an
extension of this copyright page.
Cover design by Ben Anslow
Cover image: Monument, 1980–1, Susan Hiller (1940–2019) © Tate
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any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist,
but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Racz, Imogen, author, interviewer.
Title: British art of the long 1980s : diverse practices, exhibitions and
infrastructures / Imogen Racz.
Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020025530 (print) | LCCN 2020025531 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781350191532 (hardback) | ISBN 9781350191570 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781350191549 (pdf) | ISBN 9781350191556 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Sculpture, British–20th century. | Artists–Great
Britain–Interviews. | Art and society–Great Britain–History–20th century.
Classification: LCC NB468 .R33 2020 (print) | LCC NB468 (ebook) |
DDC 730.941/0904–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025530
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025531
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-9153-2
ePDF: 978-1-3501-9154-9
eBook: 978-1-3501-9155-6
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Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Narratives and Contexts 1
1 Rasheed Araeen 25
2 Susan Hiller 37
3 Robin Klassnik 49
4 Bill Woodrow 59
5 Alison Wilding 67
6 Jacqueline Poncelet 75
7 Richard Deacon 85
8 Katherine Gili 97
9 Nicholas Pope 109
10 Roger Malbert 119
11 Jonathan Harvey 133
12 Mikey Cuddihy 145
13 Kate Blacker 157
14 Richard Wilson 169
15 Antonia Payne 181
16 Hilary Gresty 195
17 Veronica Ryan 207
18 Langlands & Bell (Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell) 219
19 Cathy de Monchaux 233
20 Laura Ford 245
21 James Lingwood 257
22 Karsten Schubert 269
23 Abigail Lane 279
Afterword 292
Select Bibliography and Suggested Further Reading 293
Index 297
Illustrations
1 Rasheed Araeen, Sculpture No. 2, 2014 24
2 Susan Hiller, Belshazzar’s Feast, the Writing on Your Wall, 1983–4 36
3 Richard Wilson, 20:50, 1987 48
4 Bill Woodrow, Pram with Fish, 1982 58
5 Richard Deacon, New Sculpture Gallery, Riverside Studios, London,
8 February–4 March 1984. Foreground: Out of the House, 1983. Back
left: Art for Other People No. 5, 1982. Back right: For Those Who Have
Eyes, 1983 84
6 Katherine Gili, Leonide, 1981–2 96
7 Nicholas Pope, The Conundrum of the Chalice of the Seven Deadly
Sins and Seven Virtues, 2016 108
8 Matta doing drawing with students at Kings College
Cambridge, 1975 118
9 Ron Haselden, Working 12 Days at the ACME Gallery, 1978 132
10 Mikey Cuddihy with Rock, Scissors, Paper, 1985 144
11 Kate Blacker, Matterhorn, 1982 156
12 Richard Wilson, Turning the Place Over, 2007–12 168
13 Antonia Payne at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 1986 180
14 Veronica Ryan, Defined Place, 1988 206
15 Langlands & Bell, Traces of Living, 1986 218
16 Cathy de Monchaux, Defying Death I Ran Away to the Fucking
Circus, Part 1, 1991 232
17 Laura Ford, Buttercup, 1991 244
18 Richard Wilson, One Piece at a Time, 1987 256
19 Abigail Lane, Red Vertigo, 1995 278
Acknowledgements
I would first of all like to thank all the interviewees. They were incredibly
generous with their time and expertise, firstly with the interviews, then reading
and correcting the scripts and in providing the images. They were also very
supportive when replying to updates that I sent them. Some also lent me
catalogues and out-of-print books for which I am extremely grateful.
At the time of going to press two contributors have died: Susan Hiller and
Karsten Schubert. I remember them warmly. Both were very kind, and we also
had lively and engaged conversations outside the interviews.
I would like to thank my colleagues and my line manager Nick Gorse at
Coventry University who supported me in various ways that enabled this project
to be completed.
Lastly, I would like to thank many close friends as well as my husband, Mark,
all of whom have lived with the ups and downs inevitable in a project like this
and have been unerringly supportive.

Introduction: Narratives and Contexts
This book presents the richness and cross-currents of sculptural and object-based
practices in Britain during the crucial years from the late 1970s to early 1990s.
This period marked a time of rapid change in the British art world, from a
situation where there was little money, infrastructure or critical debate to one
where there were commercially viable galleries and contemporary British art
had become visible, collected and internationally celebrated. It was also a decade
with a great range of sculptural practices that were made and exhibited but have
been largely forgotten or only discussed within particular frameworks.
During research for other projects that have already been published and for
a book that I still am determined to write, I have come to realize the paucity
of available material in archives, libraries or journals on which to build a
narrative that is different from the existing, carefully constructed history.
British sculpture during the 1980s has been framed by particular biases, and
the wonderful richness of practices, the energetic development of networks and
infrastructures, and the sheer dedication to keep going, frequently in the face
of lack of money and an indifferent – at best – public and press, risks being
lost. These interviews provide new insights into the sculptural practices and
supporting infrastructures and exhibitions of the era and contextualize them
within prevailing social, political and cultural changes.
The established story of British sculpture during the 1980s tends to frame
the decade with the exhibition from 1981 that was held at the Arnolfini Gallery
in Bristol and the Institute of Contemporary Art London (ICA): Objects and
Sculpture, which has been heralded as the main starting point of New British
Sculpture, and 1988, which was the year of the inaugural exhibition of Tate
Liverpool – Starlit Waters. British Sculpture: An International Art 1968–1988 and
Freeze that signalled the start of Young British Artists (YBAs). Not only does this
make the 1980s very short, but it also simplifies the narrative too neatly. Careers
do not conform to strict dates. By encouraging my interviewees to start in the