John
Latham, Still and Chew invitation.
Image copyright The Estate of Barry Flanagan, courtesy Bridgeman Art
Library.
Pataphysics
provides a framework for dialogues between Barry Flanagan and John
Latham. ’Pataphysics is defined by its inventor, Alfred Jarry, the
Symbolist poet and writer, as ‘the science of imaginary solutions.’
It preoccupied Flanagan from the early 1960s before he enrolled
on the Advanced Sculpture Course at St Martin’s School of Art in
1964, where he met John Latham who was at that time teaching in the
painting department.
Establishing
the common ground is not difficult and it is logical that Latham and
Flanagan would have gravitated towards each other in order to discuss
paradoxes and contradictions of making art. Discussions of monetary
and aesthetic value lead to considering how these systems are
determined by time. This includes questions of labour cost, how much
is time worth and by whom this is measured. These quantifications
affect how we think – whether something is worthwhile or not
worthwhile depends on criteria. Holding onto the concept of ‘not
knowing’, of casting the yes/no and either/or paradigms aside, even
if only temporarily as an impossible aim is hard. This is due to its
slippery character as much as a self-conscious societal need for
accountability. ’Pataphysics, is properly denoted with the
apostrophe before the letter p, as if to close a previous speech mark
and thus mark a metaphorical circularity, or to put it another way,
an ending before a beginning. This circularity of intention is a
primary characteristic of pataphysical thinking and which is
frequently symbolised by the spiral form. The movement is similar to
the palindrome, which is a paradoxical forward-backward relationship.
This exhibition will illuminate their collaborative and shared
concerns beginning with the notorious Still
and Chew
happening, when the formalist critic Clement Greenberg’s recently
published collection of essays Art
and Culture
was systematically chewed to a pulp in 1966. Flanagan’s catch
phrase ‘examine the facts’ provides a curatorial key.
Exhibition
curated by Jo Melvin, Palindromes
looks
at ’pataphysics and transactions between Barry Flanagan and John
Latham
2
April–17 May 2015
Flat
Time House, London
