Once my life was taken up with inventing things I imagined no one else had ever had.
It always seemed productive to collect with others to create some sort of organisational structure that could facilitate much more than anyone of us could achieve on our own.
This was an era when many of the arts organisations that have become the cultural pivots of our towns and cities were invented, often by artists. Forums, galleries and ad-hoc spaces were for me the sites of many significant moments: absorbing, witnessing, questioning and learning to see the world differently.
Mostly, I have to rely on my unreliable memory to recall these influential times, but in some cases, I still have a book, pamphlet or a few pieces of folded paper that offer invaluable, insightful essays. These guides are critical editions that today I could not be without, but they are slowly disappearing from exhibitions.
Peek-A-Jobby
Books offer an invaluable tool for remembering. In 1998, when I first visited Graham Fagen’s Peek-A-Jobby exhibition at Matt’s Gallery in east London, I left with a little black book, illicitly inserted into a brown paper bag. It was much like taking a piece of the art away with me.
Looking back on Fagen’s practice, which includes photography, film, performance, sculpture and drawing, I see that his work draws on literature, poetry, musical forms and the work of cultural figures to question ideas of the national, social and political.
Fagen often collaborates with musicians, theatre directors and writers. For Scotland + Venice 2015, a Collateral Event of the 56th Venice
Biennale, Hospitalfield has commissioned an entirely new body of work by him. It includes an installation realised in collaboration with composer Sally Beamish, musicians of Scottish Ensemble, reggae musician Ghetto Priest and music producer Adrian Sherwood.
The accompanying exhibition catalogue, one of the very first things we discussed, was designed by Richy Lamb to look back as well as forward on Fagen’s work in order to draw interesting connections.
It includes contributions from Penelope Curtis, the former director of Tate Britain, and Katrina Brown, the director of The Common Guild in Glasgow, as well as a conversation between Fagen and Scottish novelist Louise Welsh.
It is accompanied by a 10-inch limited- edition record, The Slave’s Lament, contributed by Robin Klassnik, the director of Matt’s Gallery and a passionate advocate of Fagen’s work.
Future plans
Reinvention is a fascinating thing; in relation to music, vinyl is best. Cultural organisations need the momentum of new ideas to keep upright.
Hospitalfield was invented by 19th-century artist Patrick Allan-Fraser in a grand house on Scotland’s east coast.
On his death in 1890, a trust succeeded in establishing a model for its time. The 20th century accomplished much, but reinvention is required and Fagen is an important part of Hospitalfield’s future plan.
Lucy Byatt is the director of Hospitalfield, Arbroath
It always seemed productive to collect with others to create some sort of organisational structure that could facilitate much more than anyone of us could achieve on our own.
This was an era when many of the arts organisations that have become the cultural pivots of our towns and cities were invented, often by artists. Forums, galleries and ad-hoc spaces were for me the sites of many significant moments: absorbing, witnessing, questioning and learning to see the world differently.
Mostly, I have to rely on my unreliable memory to recall these influential times, but in some cases, I still have a book, pamphlet or a few pieces of folded paper that offer invaluable, insightful essays. These guides are critical editions that today I could not be without, but they are slowly disappearing from exhibitions.
Peek-A-Jobby
Books offer an invaluable tool for remembering. In 1998, when I first visited Graham Fagen’s Peek-A-Jobby exhibition at Matt’s Gallery in east London, I left with a little black book, illicitly inserted into a brown paper bag. It was much like taking a piece of the art away with me.
Looking back on Fagen’s practice, which includes photography, film, performance, sculpture and drawing, I see that his work draws on literature, poetry, musical forms and the work of cultural figures to question ideas of the national, social and political.
Fagen often collaborates with musicians, theatre directors and writers. For Scotland + Venice 2015, a Collateral Event of the 56th Venice
Biennale, Hospitalfield has commissioned an entirely new body of work by him. It includes an installation realised in collaboration with composer Sally Beamish, musicians of Scottish Ensemble, reggae musician Ghetto Priest and music producer Adrian Sherwood.
The accompanying exhibition catalogue, one of the very first things we discussed, was designed by Richy Lamb to look back as well as forward on Fagen’s work in order to draw interesting connections.
It includes contributions from Penelope Curtis, the former director of Tate Britain, and Katrina Brown, the director of The Common Guild in Glasgow, as well as a conversation between Fagen and Scottish novelist Louise Welsh.
It is accompanied by a 10-inch limited- edition record, The Slave’s Lament, contributed by Robin Klassnik, the director of Matt’s Gallery and a passionate advocate of Fagen’s work.
Future plans
Reinvention is a fascinating thing; in relation to music, vinyl is best. Cultural organisations need the momentum of new ideas to keep upright.
Hospitalfield was invented by 19th-century artist Patrick Allan-Fraser in a grand house on Scotland’s east coast.
On his death in 1890, a trust succeeded in establishing a model for its time. The 20th century accomplished much, but reinvention is required and Fagen is an important part of Hospitalfield’s future plan.
Lucy Byatt is the director of Hospitalfield, Arbroath
