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13 September - 5 December, 2010
Room 1: Tate Britain, Millbank London SWAP ERG
Richard Wright (born 1960), who lives and works in Glasgow, is the
third and final artist to respond to the invitation by the Contemporary Art
Society to curate a display for Room 1 of Tate Britain. Establishing a
Platform, the title for this series, began with Elizabeth Price’s
installation, Perfect Courses and Shimmering Substances, (5 February-3
May). Followed by Ponder Pause Process (A Situation) by Yane Calovski
(16 May - 30 August ).
Taking the title The Sleeping Congregation, from William Hogarth's 1736
engraving, gifted to the Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent by the Contemporary
Art Society in 1942, Wright is inviting the audience to view this satirical
image as not so much a critique of an indolent audience as of a boring sermon.
Hogarth's satire perhaps has its parallels in the condition of art - it could be
understood as an indirect exhortation to more inspiring forms of address which
could solicit attentiveness or even
fervour.
Since the 1960's contemporary art has increasingly adopted the strategies of
advertising in order to market instantly desirable consumer goods. The
incidental, almost ephemeral pieces chosen for this exhibition may not be
immediately persuasive in relation to this sort of intention for the gratifying
of the spectacular. Instead, they address a more peripheral sense of vision: a
vision which is less concerned with the artificial or exaggerated act of
spectatorship (seeing and knowing from the outside) and more concerned with an
osmotic relationship between the self and the world.
With this starting point Wright's selection of works from Tate's collection
include those by John Latham; Samuel Palmer; William Blake; Edward Ruscha;
Blinky Palermo and others, drawing unexpected links and relationships between
artists across the
centuries.
For more information about the progamme please visit our website: www.contemporaryartsociety.org/centenary-programme or email us at nationalprogrammes@contemporaryartsociety.org
The Contemporary Art Society's Centenary Programme has been generously
supported by the Arts Council England, Grants for the Arts.
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Image credit: William Blake,`Europe'. Fragment of Pages 3 and 4
1794/circa 1830-5
©
Tate
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