Audio Arts: Volume 16 No 1

00:00:00 Carl Andre interviewed by William Furlong. In this interview Carl Andre speaks extensively about his works in the exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, entitled, Carl Andre Sculptor 1996. The artist starts by discussing the large floor piece, 6-Metal Fugue (for Mendeleeve) installed in the upper gallery. While walking through the galleries, other works discussed included: 25 Ceder Solid 1995, Sand-Lime Instar 1966/1995 and Twenty-fifth Copper Cardinal 1994. Andre also elaborates on a number of topics including the meaning of the term 'site specific' in relation to his own practice. Recalling the press attack on the Tate Gallery's purchase of his brick piece; Equivalent VIII he comments, 'The whole campaign was nothing but a philistine attack on contemporary art and it was only an accident that the bricks were chosen. lt could have been a Richard Long boulder piece or a Barry Flanagan pile of sand.' In talking about his use of materials he added: 'Just as we say that a painter is a colourist, I think of myself as a matterist. I try to deal with the variety of matter in the way that a good painter deals with the varieties of colour'. Recorded May 1996. 00:32:27 Liam Gillick interviewed by William Furlong. The What If? Scenario is the title of Liam Gillick's first exhibition at the Robert Prime Gallery, London. In this recording, Gillick starts by providing an over-view of the general and underlying concerns of this new group of works: 'In the last couple of years I have been playing with a series of ideas that I think of now as parallel histories¿ they are concerned with the memory of a future that has not happened'. Unlike previous strategies, where objects proceeded from a text, in this exhibition, the artist sees the works functioning as source material or notation, having the potential to generate ideas leading toward the creation of a 'predictive report'. In talking about the work Discussion Platform the undisclosed and ambiguous function of which, could be to provide a site or shelter for people to gather and interact. In relation to the function of the works in the exhibition the artist adds: 'I have to make these obiects in order to proceed with the work'. In exploring ideas beyond questions of resolving issues of form and content, Gillick claims an interest in an area that flickers between all of these things¿ 'where effects and ideas meet'. The artist goes on to discuss and elaborate on other works in the exhibition including: (The What lf? Scenario) Mirrored Insulation Plate 1995 and (The What If? Scenario) Communication Banners 1996. Recorded June 1996.

00:00:00 Ben Langlands interviewed by Jean Wainwright. This discussion at the Serpentine Gallery focuses on the buildings and furniture which inspire their collaborative work. Emphasising their belief that architecture is a universal language, they bring the hidden life of buildings to light. Their pristine models are denuded of any extraneous detail, every structure is seen to have a coded purpose. The Sears Tower, a series of dysfunctional furniture, religious buildings, corporate HQ's are displayed as timeless utopias. Stating that we shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us, they express the belief that their work embodies a crystallised set of aspirations and possibilities. 00:16:07 Liste 96 interviewed by William Furlong. Liste 96 The Young Art Fair in Basel, took place in June 1996. Including some 35 international 'young' galleries, the organisers regarded Liste 96 not as a counter art fair, but as an addition to the main fair, which was taking place at the same time in the nearby Messa Basel. In this collage of recordings, participating galleries offer opinions, views and comments on Liste 96. 00:31:29 Stuart Brisley interviewed. In Stuart Brisley's exhibition, Black at The South London Art Gallery, the expectation of a dramatic intervention of the sort that might be associated with the artist's practice over the years, was challenged by a series of relatively 'quiet', museum-like displays. Brisley's radical concerns however were present, albeit beneath the surface, through various 'interrogations' of cultural, social and media infrastructure. In speaking about the particular character of the exhibition, the artist wished to make works that could be 'read' on a more intimate and personal scale, acknowledging a human presence, rather than employ strategies of spectacle which he sees as being more overt characteristic of dominant cultural practice. Manipulation, authority, control, visibility and invisibility remain consistent preoccupation's and themes in the artist's practice. A series of paintings of members of the Royal Family represent a critique of how monarchy has started to implode on itself, embodying a crumbling institution which is the epitome of the class system in Britain¿ a society in a state of dissolution and decay. Recorded June 1996. 00:41:55 Geraldine Monk soundwork: Hidden Cities 00:47:10 Graeme Miller soundwork: Hidden Cities 00:54:26 Brian Catling soundwork: Hidden Cities Hidden Cities was a soundwork recording guided tours from buses and river buses, in various British cities, in which live commentaries were undertaken by artists (Patrick Wright, Ian Breakwell, Geraldine Monk, Graeme Miller, Brian Catling, taking audiences in Durham, Birmingham, Manchester and Oxford). This track is the continuation of the Volume 15 number 4 last track. Geraldine Monk, Graeme Miller, Brian Catling: (see Volume 15 number 4 p. 33 for further details).