RICHARDSON Monuments UoC version.pdf (124.02 kB)
Monuments to the period we live in
John Latham’s (1921 – 2006) ‘monuments to the period we live in’ are two partially protected groups of oil shale ‘bings’ (Norse: heaps). These were initially the voluminous waste by-product of Scotland’s energy production industries, reconceived within a synthesis of methods originally developed by the Artist Placement Group (APG) 1965 – 89 and allied to concepts within the manifesto of auto-destructive art (Metzger, 1965) and the proclivities of Latham’s renowned but often controversial practice. This chapter explains the methodology of Latham’s reimagination of the site he renamed Niddrie Woman (1975-6) and why it has resonance. In doing so the essay looks forward to how the future conservation of these remarkable forms as sculptural monuments is increasingly dependent on their assessment as ‘hotspots’ of biodiversity. The academic context builds on archival items within the Artist Placement Group Archive at Tate Britain’s Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Richardson (2012), Walker (1976, 1994) and curatorial research (Hudek, 2012), and onsite environmental research (Harvie, 2005).
History
Published in
Hybrid Practices: Art in Collaboration with Science and Technology in the Long 1960sPages
0 - 0Citation
RICHARDSON, C., 2017. Monuments to the period we live in. IN: Cateforis, D., Duval, S. and Steiner, S. (eds.) Hybrid Practices: Art in Collaboration with Science and Technology in the Long 1960s. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 91-110.Publisher
© University of California PressVersion
- SMUR (Submitted Manuscript Under Review)
Publication date
2018-11-01Notes
Please note that this content is under copyright and not available for use by others under the CC-BY-NC-ND licenseISBN
9780520296596;9780520296596;0520296591Publisher version
Language
- en