NuSpeak issue 'The old west"

As my interest in NuSpeak issues dead ended within the Third Eye Centre archives, I simply went over to Edinburgh to the National Library of Scotland to see all of the issues. They were surprisingly diverse in appearance, some were almost entirely in comic form (one issue before that one offered £5 for every cartoon published) and others were works of art in themselves, such as the Edwin Morgan issue which the Glasgow School of Art has its own copy in their special collections library.

The second issue of NuSpeak has the heading on the front "The old west" and within its pages it contains a list of Tom McGrath's aims with the centre with 7 main points.

"But I can give some general indication as to what the policy of the new centre will be. What follows below is a set of notes, no more than that."

He goes on to say that the centre will attempt to represent all of the arts from having a gallery, a theater, showing films, and having poetry readings, but it also states that he wants the space to be able to host both happenings and rock concerts. The second point is specifically about the audience he wanted to form a centre where "many different sites of creative values and attitudes can be expressed." This is described as ranging from the conservative to the avant gard, from high-culture to pop and it is meant to "extend the interests of the audiences to fields beyond their usual interest."

The rest of what follows I'll type in verbatim as its wording is particularly interesting and as someone who is interested in what forms an institution takes on an 'educational' capacity (sometimes entirely formed by volunteers which is interesting for how common a practice this is). While being in school I find that it can be difficult to research current ongoing radical practices as the term tends to only be used when something is already over, as if nothing can be radical in the moment that it is occuring, only when we mourn its loss. It was mentioned to me that when the Third Eye Centre opened there were those that reminisced that things were much better when the centre was based in 5 Blythswood Square, and it seems that these kinds of nostalgic comparisons are bound to go on until the end of time.

Numbers 1 and 2 were summarised in the paragraph above, here is the rest:

"3. As far as possible, within the scope of its budget, the centre will try to bring creative people to Glasgow from other parts of the world, so that everyone in the city, but particularly the artists, can have a direct experience of what is happening elsewhere.

4. Locally it is hoped that the centre will be a meeting place where a wide range of people can feel at ease and find something to their interest. (In other words I hope it won't be dominated by one clique or another.) There will be some kind of restaurant and coffee shop and, depending on building space, a selling area offering a wide-range of things not previously available in Glasgow. (That sounds ominous!)

5. As well as presenting exhibitions brought in from the outside of the city, or from the past (or the future), the centre will do as much as possible to help artists working in Glasgow at the moment. (For artists also read writers, musicians etc.)

6. As well as encouraging and representing these people who are already known or regard themselves as artists, the centre will attempt to show and encourage the creativity of 'ordinary people' of the city. This will be done via 'people-centred' shows where an exhibition (or concert or debate or whatever) wil be based around what people are already interested in in their daily lives or are already producing.

7. The centre will also try to help encourage and give expression to what I call the 'new age' culture - meditation, vegetarianism, geodesic domes etc.

Phew! As you can see, it's a big job and I've probably missed out the half of it. The main underlying aims are to break down cultural barriers and to encourage creativity at every level. - Tom McGrath"

A NuSpeak Publication Written by Children

"WHAT FOLLOWS IS ENTIRELY THE WORK OF A GROUP WHO VISITED THE GLASGOW CENTRE OF THE SCOTTISH ARTS COUNCIL ON JULY 4, 1973.

The group was composed mainly of children from Belfast with a few others from Gorbals and Glasgow Housing Estates, and the group leaders participating.

No pressure was put on the children to draw, and no suggestions were made about subject. The only extraneous stimulus which affected the final result was a copy of a colour supplement with a bulldog on the cover - the image seems to have caught at least a couple of imaginations"

- The Scottish Arts Council

5 Blythswood Square

Blogger's note: The last names have been removed to protect the artists' identity.

(images courtesy of the CCA and the Third Eye Centre Archives)

It's unclear if this was actually put together as a NuSpeak edition or if it was meant to be in the style of the NuSpeak publications which would have been most likely been in the process of being put together at Blythswood Square. These are a selection of drawings that were all stapled together within the archives amongst other general information about community art. The words and thoughts of children give an unfiltered look at the state of the times as well perhaps the role that Blythswood would have played as a community center.

Just to put it out there again, from what I understand no one has a comprehensive collection of all of the NuSpeak issues in Glasgow (but they are in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh), but it would be fascinating to compare the issues more in depth with the contents of the archives.

Tracking down Nuspeak editions, Blythswood Square's free publication

Related to the writings of Cordelia Oliver are the issues of NuSpeak that began as a free publication when the Scottish Arts Council Art Centre was located at 5 Blythswood Square.

These issues are quite hard to find, but the paper theses "The Artist as Critic: art writing in Scotland 1960-1990" by Susannah Thompson helps to see the first edition on Page 79, where the Third Eye Archive was presented with the last edition with no apparent complete collection anywhere in the world.

It began "This is the first edition of Nuspeak, an inter-personal information device. It is, as you see it, just a piece of paper with some words on it. But it is going to four thousand nine hundred and ninety nine other people by mail and is being circulated as a giveaway in different places. My name is Tom McGrath and I am setting up this scheme in conjunction with the Scottish Arts Council's new arts centre which will be opening in Glasgow late summer of this year with myself as director. If the arts centre hasn't opened by then, Nuspeak will tell you why."

Here is an image of one of the sections from the last issue that give a sense of fun that the layout had as well as the tone.

(A small portion, one eighth of a full-page spread of Nuspeak's last edition, 1975. The image is courtesy of the Third Eye Centre/CCA)

It is one of the best visual references to get a sense of everything that is going on in the art scene at that given moment. I put together a list of all the people it mentions with an asterisk if that person was graced with a full paragraph or an image of themselves or their work.

Derek Bailey

Jacques Barzun

Stan Bell

Earl Birnie

Mark Boyle

Stan Bonnar*

Boys of the Lough

Alison Buchanan

Bill Buchanan

John Byrne*

Cantilena Baroque

Shrley Cameron

The Cage

Sri Chinmoy

Martin Carthy

Cricst theatre group from Poland

Miles Davis

Joan Eardley

Michael Edwards*

Duke Ellington

Morton Feldman

Allan Ginsburg

Alasdair Gray

David Harding*

Peter and Phil Hartigan

Mike Horovitz

Richard Hough*

Walter Kershaw and the "Rochdale Sculptors"

Bob Laing

Steve Lacey

Jolyon Leycock*

Tom Leonard*

Mahavishmu

Sorley Maclean*

John McColl

Ewan McColl

Adrian Mitchell

Roland Miller

Edwin Morgan*

Robin Munro*

Cordelia Oliver

George Oliver

The People Show

Art in Revolution

Odile Redon

Ray Russell

Sahasrara, the crown Chakra

Peggy Seeger

Sonic Arts Union

Jim Torrance

Traditional Folk Club

John Upton

It ends by saying:
"With the opening of THIRD EYE CENTRE, all of its staff's energies and its finances have to be devoted to activities in the centre. We hope that you agree it is better, if you have to choose, to do something than to read about it. We don't have the resources to continue a free arts newspaper but if you feel strongly that a publication like Nuspeak should continue to exist in Scotland then write to the Director of the Scottish Arts Council and let him know your views. Our thanks are due to Tom Kinninmont and especially to Ian McFadden who, under rushed and shoestring conditions, managed to edit the paper."

These publications if collected in their entirety would paint a fascinating picture of the moment in time that the Blythswood Square paved the way for the Third Eye Centre and the ways that Tom McGrath in particular wanted to promote an awareness of everything cultural that was going on and to receive feedback.

My Continuing Adventure with Cordelia and George Oliver

Hello again, I am back to report on the progress in cataloguing the Cordelia and George Oliver artefacts and I can officially report; I have completed the year 1970 and am well on my way through 1971! Ok, so simply saying numbers to describe going through several years worth of articles does not really provide an accurate picture of the work involved. To get a clear picture I would like to direct you to the clip below...

Reading through Cordelia's work it is possible to get a strong impression of how she was. Opinionated, out-spoken and dedicated are the first characteristics that come to mind. There is rarely more than two or three days between Cordelia's reviews, whether that is for theatre, exhibition or performance art which must have meant that the majority of her time was out and about, looking and watching the art scene around her. In ways it makes me sad that having read so much of her work I will never have the opportunity to meet her.

However the articles are still a delight, and the papers themselves provide an interesting context to the period. Advertisements can be particularly revealing,

'The George & Cordelia Oliver Collection at the Glasgow School of Art'

The advertisement here stating, "Like women, money responds to a little handling. Women and money both tend to get out of control if you don't pay them enough attention". Ah, the horrendous old days of friendly sexism, to the time when cigarettes could still be advertised..

'The George & Cordelia Oliver Collection at the Glasgow School of Art'

...to good old Flora. You've gotta love it.

'The George & Cordelia Oliver Collection at the Glasgow School of Art'

It is quite incredible to see how what was considered acceptable, and completely normal a couple of decades ago in 1970, would seem bizarre today (excluding Flora of course). Equally it is very interesting to see that the concerns and issues of society today have not really changed.

'The George & Cordelia Oliver Collection at the Glasgow School of Art'

It seems that people will continue to worry about harmful ideas being transmitted through any content that contains 'sex' in it, with the internet now playing a large role in people's concern, and the Tories continue to do what they do best. It seems history is doomed to repeat itself.

P.S. A face you might recognise.

'The George & Cordelia Oliver Collection at the Glasgow School of Art'

"as much as they can take..."

         Here are some images and documents to further illustrate how the Third Eye Centre saw itself as a source of education and a place to consider social and contemporary issues but this was balanced with keeping itself accessible. Below is a "not-yet-letter" (a.k.a. rejected proposal) from Tom McGrath and below I put in as a reference an image of Colin Cina's work from his catalog published by the Third Eye Centre.

(The image is courtesy of the Third Eye Centre/CCA)

(Image of "Equinox" by Colin Cina. The image is courtesy of the Third Eye Centre/CCA)

"The opening of the COLIN CINA exhibition of paintings and drawings on Tuesday, October 21st market he beginning of a "contemporary" period at the Third Eye Centre, when we will show that modern or abstract art is not necessarily unintelligible, and in fact can be very entertaining. Colin Cina' Paintings are large and colourful, tending towards the abstract, but still attractive to the uneducated eye." -  Alison Clark, The Programs Relations Officer



This pamphlet from London was distributed to everyone in the Visual Arts Committee in 1976 (and it still serves as a nice guide even today) in order to serve as a model for keeping artists in Scotland. There are correspondence letters clipped together of organisations from Dundee to Edinburgh and Glasgow all keeping each other updated on developing studio spaces.

(This is an image of a publication between Acme, SPACE and the Arts Council of Great Britain, The image is courtesy of the Third Eye Centre/CCA)

Click here to see a full size image of this pamphlet

(This is an image of a publication between Acme, SPACE and the Arts Council of Great Britain, The image is courtesy of the Third Eye Centre/CCA)

         To pull a quote from the Arts Guardian on May 10th (The opening of the Third Eye) Tom McGrath said "At this point though, it's all practicality. There isn't time for ideas till we've got it open and functioning. Let's say, I'm interested in a breakdown between compartments in the arts. I'm interested in an international present and a local situation. I can't see the outcome- that's what makes it so exciting."

Tai Chi Oak Tree

One of the marked differences between the Third Eye Centre at its inception and contemporary arts centres such as the CCA is the relationship that the former had with spirituality. Tom McGrath (the Centre's first director) and many others involved with the Third Eye were followers of the teachings of Sri Chinmoy, a Bengali-American advocate of meditation, vegetarianism and exercise. Chinmoy's influence pervades the documents of McGrath's stewardship of the arts centre, from giving the enterprise its name (Third Eye was his second choice, after Beauty's Bounty was rejected); to the cafe, which was founded as a vegetarian co-op; to the scripts of McGrath's plays, one of which, The Hardman, includes a stage direction for the eponymous lead to go into a Yoga position, complete with the instructions 'Please see I. S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga for further details.'

It is interesting to speculate what kind of relationship the art of the day had with teachings such as Chinmoy's, especially considering the coincidence of the founding of the Third Eye Centre with the emergence of video and conceptual art in the UK in the late '60s and early '70s. There are seemingly certain similarities between these strands including an economy of means (often, especially in the case of video, dictated by scant resources); a contemplative aesthetic; an investigation into the nature of being and a self-reflexive, philosophical approach. Whether or not there is any direct correlation is difficult to assert, although these cultural tracts, along with various others, seem to have coalesced around the nascent arts centre, playing a significant role in its identity.

I have posted 3 videos from the archive below; the first is from a Tai Chi demonstration that took place in the Third Eye in 1977, the second is an extract from a Michael Craig-Martin artist talk of the same year in which he reads the text from his [in]famous An Oak Tree piece, the third footage of Chinmoy in 1975, meditating with the help of what looks to be a casio keyboard. Craig-Martin was mentor for many of the YBAs and an inspiration for the Scottish neo-conceptualists, and so has been more influential than most in the development of visual art in the UK. In this piece he plays with ideas of semiotics and idealist philosophy, providing an interesting counterpoint to the minimalist humming of the spiritual leader Chinmoy and the slow, performative actions of the Tai Chi demonstrators.

Start all of the extracts at the same time and you get a 3-channel video conflating conceptual art, Tai Chi and meditation in a small portrait of the Third Eye Centre in the mid '70s.



Tai Chi demo from The Glasgow Miracle on Vimeo.

Oak Tree from The Glasgow Miracle on Vimeo.

Chinmoy from The Glasgow Miracle on Vimeo.


For any who might be interested, Adam Curtis has another, more sinister take on the influence of eastern spiritualism on western culture in this extensive and fascinating blog post:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/bodybuilding_and_nation-buildi

How did the Third Eye Centre decide on exhibitions?

In my last post I was looking at the box that contained documents organizing travelling shows either to or from the Third Eye Centre. Naturally I was curious about how they decided what should be shown and my curiosity peaked when I found that this box includes for comparison a draft for the official policy statement of the Third Eye Centre describing it's first nine months as well as a draft of a lecture Michael Tooby gave in 1983 at the Demarco Conference describing the history of the Third Eye and its current priorities.

I thought that it would be interesting to pose the two draft documents as a conversation, almost a debate between two periods of time. They both capture a moment where they are aware of their successes and what they imagine the future may hold.

"The exhibition programme at Third Eye over the first nine months has displayed a wide range of work, varying in style and achievement from Sir Stanley Spencer's Port Glasgow paintings to a display of schoolchildren's art in the cafe space." – Presumably written by Tom McGrath with support of the Third Eye staff.

  

"Third Eye Centre was opened eight years ago. It is Glasgow's centre for the contemporary arts, with public funding predominantly from Scottish Arts Council but also from local authorities, with income from its own activities, particularly its bookshop and cafe." – Michael Tooby, the exhibitions organiser writing in 1983.

I’ve started by listing the first opening sentence of each document, but from here on out they will be given signifier names to denote the period of time as if these were the characters. Some sentences are slightly rearranged topically, but not to the extent that they are taken completely out of context.

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