Democracies

Glenn Ligon, Condition Report  2000

Untitled (I Am a Man), a 1988 painting by Ligon, takes its text from signs carried by striking black sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968. The slogan ‘I Am a Man’ was a way of protesting that they were equal to their white counterparts, who were paid more for doing the same job. Here Ligon juxtaposes a reproduction of the 1988 painting with another that has been annotated by a conservator making a condition report on the work. The imperfections noted might simultaneously be read as a questioning of the self as well as recording the frailties of the object.

Gallery label, June 2010

Lubaina Himid, The Carrot Piece  1985

The Carrot Piece shows a white man failing to tempt a black woman with a carrot. Her arms are already full with everything she needs. Himid says that when the work was made, cultural institutions ‘needed to be seen’ to be integrating black people into their programmes and ‘we as black women understood how we were being patronised ... to be cajoled and distracted by silly games and pointless offers. We understood, but we knew what sustained us… and what we really needed to make a positive cultural contribution: self-belief, inherited wisdom, education and love.’

Gallery label, July 2017

Richard Hamilton, The state  1993

Hamilton’s image of a patrolling British soldier expresses the unease of the army’s equivocal position in Northern Ireland. Brandishing a weapon, yet moving protectively backwards, he is both on the offensive and defensive. The rural Irish landscape and city streets behind him pose equal threats. Hamilton has incorporated real fabric into the soldier’s fatigues, merging pictorial representation and reality. The construction of images through costume and artifice has been a consistent concern in Hamilton's works.

Gallery label, November 2006

Bob and Roberta Smith, All Schools Should be Art Schools  2016

All Schools Should Be Art Schools 2016 consists of twenty-eight placard signs, each of which is made of a square sheet of wood pinned to a wooden stake. Each sign is painted with a different capital letter on a blue background to fill the square. The letters have been variously painted in purple, green, cream and red and all are drawn in an angular style save for one ‘S’, the final letter of the work, which is curvilinear. The letter forms are outlined in yellow, cream or white and emphasised by drop shadows. Together they spell out the slogan and title of the work, ‘All Schools Should Be Art Schools’. The back of each board is unpainted bears a letter (corresponding to the letter painted on the front) and a number which indicates the order in which the panels should be installed.

Marta Minujín, The Parthenon of Books  1983

The Parthenon of Books 1983 is the documentary record of a project by Marta Minujín in which she reconstructed the classical Greek temple of the Parthenon from the Acropolis in Athens out of books. In its current form the work consists of five black and white photographs showing various stages of the construction of the temple and a video recording the event and public reaction to it. The photographs are unique prints.

Artur Zmijewski, Democracies  2009

Aiming to blend into the crowd as much as possible, Zmijewski and his cameramen filmed a series of politically charged gatherings, including demonstrations, military parades and memorial services. Many of the events are extreme right-wing and nationalistic, reflecting what the artist sees as a general cultural shift in Europe. ‘I was less interested in the rightness or justice of the cause’, Zmijewski has said, ‘but more in this inner drive that moves people to debate, to publicly show their own needs, demands, requests, opinions – and to defend them with their own presence’.

Gallery label, November 2015

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (People saluting)  2010

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Boy running with barrel)  2010

Rita Donagh, 21.9.1971  1972

Since the 1960s, Donagh’s work has dealt with turbulent political history, particularly in Northern Ireland. She has often used crosses and intersecting lines in her work. She wrote: ‘I hoped by using abstract signs and conventions of perspective, to find equivalents for experience and feeling, while at the same time conveying precise information about a particular time and place’. 21.9.1971 features elements from the artist’s environment. The postcard shows the East London street where the work was made. Studio floorboards appear as rubbings on the paper. This work also relates to events that took place in the USA in May 1971 when four students were killed by the National Guard at Kent State University during an anti-war protest.

Gallery label, May 2019

Rita Donagh, affirm/deny  1972

Since the 1960s, Donagh’s work has dealt with turbulent political history, particularly in Northern Ireland. She has often used crosses and intersecting lines in her work. She wrote: ‘I hoped by using abstract signs and conventions of perspective, to find equivalents for experience and feeling, while at the same time conveying precise information about a particular time and place’. 21.9.1971 also features elements from the artist’s environment. The postcard shows the East London street where the work was made. Studio floorboards appear as rubbings on the paper. Both works relate to events that took place in the USA in May 1971 when four students were killed by the National Guard at Kent State University during an anti-war protest.

Gallery label, May 2019

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Boy on tip toes)  2010

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Chair balancing on stick)  Date not known

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Fountain)  2010

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Girl looking)  2010

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Two women hiding)  2010

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Riots shields in the high street)  2010

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Car on fire)  2010

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Right arm)  2010

Adam Broomberg, Oliver Chanarin, Untitled (Balloons escaping)  2010

Xiao Lu, Dialogue  1989, remade 2015

Zoe Leonard, I want a president  1992/2018