Much has been done, but there is still much more to do

Things have been quite recently on the blog due to fervid activity on other outputs of the project, but today as I finished the indexing on box one hundred and three out of one hundred and three it felt like the right moment to reflect on some of the projects milestones and developments as we approach its halfway point in September.

What We Have Done, WhatWe are About to Do, opened just two weeks ago to a busy and curious crowd many of whom have been able to identify characters and events in the archive footage currently on display, helping us build on our research and understanding of the Third Eye Centre’s history.  While we make plans for a series of workshop days on various aspects of the archive as it relates to contemporary art to follow the exhibition, the artists occupying the Project Gallery are continuing to develop and add to their works in the space and we’re looking forward to some contributions to the blog from some of them soon.

September and October will bring a new team of helpful hands to assist the indexing of the George and Cordelia Oliver Collection at the Glasgow School of Art as well as the administrative, audio and visual archive material produced from 1990 onwards when the Third Eye Centre became the Centre for Contemporary Arts.

Much has been done, but there is still much more to do.

Visual Identity

Preparations continue this week for the forthcoming CCA exhibition ‘What We Have Done, What We Are about to Do’ with items being drawn out and earmarked as possible pieces for public display.  The aim of the exhibition is to provide a progress report on our research and the archival process rather than document a linear narrative of the activity at the Third Eye Centre in the 1970s.  We are therefore attempting to select items that may be agents for activating discussion around significant events and individuals and have a potential to deepen understandings of the background and motivations behind the setting up of the Third Eye Centre.

It is proving a challenge to consider which items will visually ‘work’ in a gallery context, whilst also providing interest and purpose beyond their aesthetic.  From the first Third Eye Centre logo and headed paper, hand drawn posters for poetry readings towards a new logo and rebranding in the late 1980s the development of the Third Eye Centre’s aesthetic language is illustrated through posters and ephemera. These items reflect not only the changing social tastes but the development of the Centre’s artistic direction, policies and staffing.

This poster from one of the Third Eye Centre’s first major project exhibitions with local community is an early example of this varied visual identity.

Image Credit: Third Eye/CCA archive

Visitors and Visiting

The GSA Archives and Collections Centre has been busy these last couple of weeks with artists participating in the forthcoming CCA exhibition ‘What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do’ conducting research in the Third Eye Centre archive material, and it is becoming increasingly evident of the wealth of various and often deviant information from a linear history that the material provides.

 While some of these visitors may directly reference material found within the archive, others will also explore broader discussions on the role of archives within contemporary art practice and institutions.  

We have been out visiting too, and similar discussions, specifically curatorial intention in dissemination of archives, were prevalent during the recent Whitechapel event ‘Curating the Archive’.

We also visited Flat Time House, which holds a unique collection of the personal papers and work in the former studio of John Latham, an artist who networks with the Third Eye Centre through Better Books and the Artist Placement Group.  Significant evidence of direct communication between Latham and the Third Eye Centre is yet to be uncovered, but as detailed research on the first few years of the Third Eye Centre continues for the exhibition, we look forward to uncovering more tangible articles such as this carbon copy of a letter from Tom McGrath to Latham, the original of which amazingly is still currently held at Flat Time House. 

Illustrating Publications

Within the boxes of Third Eye Centre archive material I have been discovering an intriguing quantity of catalogues produced to accompany almost every exhibition at the centre. 

Often amongst the paperwork are handwritten notes, proofs and correspondence with the artists, contributors and printers, offering real insight into the development of even the slimmest and simplest of catalogues.   Some exhibitions such as 'It's all writ out for you' a retrospective of Scottie Wilson in 1986, demanded more significant publications.  In this case, a collaboration with the established publishers Thames and Hudson to produce a nationally distributed book and touring exhibition.

Long before and after this support of a large publishing house, The Third Eye Centre has encouraged and produced a remarkable body of creative writing, poetry and Artists’ book through its publishing activity.

It is illustrated through the material in the archive and reading the publications that this activity was not an ‘add on’ in addition to its visual arts programme, but very much a part of it as the centre developed projects with significant Scottish authors and poets such as Edwin Morgan and Hamish Whyte as well as French concrete poet Henri Chopin.  The Last Book of the Rich Alphabetical Hours of Henri Chopin publication and exhibition in 1984 visualised the poets work, and is one amongst many similar visual and literary collaborations in the Third Eye Centres programme including Seven Poets (1981) Noise and Smoky Breath (1983) and Behind The Lines (1989).

Image Credit: Third Eye Centre/CCA Archive, Illustration by Willie Rodger

Until this material is made fully accessible, the Glasgow School of Art Library houses many of these catalogues and publications for reference and research.

What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do.

Plans and preparations are currently underway for an exhibition at the CCA which will make visible the ongoing work of the Glasgow Miracle: New Evidence and Insight project.

 

From Saturday 18 Aug – Saturday 1 Sep the exhibition will reveal over 70 films documenting the activity of the Third Eye Centre in the 1970s. The footage covers the early existence of the organisation in Blythswood Square, the construction of a gallery space and café in 350 Sauchiehall St and the appearance of many famous artists, bands and performers. In the spirit of the age, the films also chart Glasgow itself, audiences and activities in the art centre, and key figures such as Jimmy Boyle, John Byrne, Michael Craig-Martin, Madelaine Taylor, Keith Tippett and Tom McGrath.

These films have been in the care of Street LevelPhotoworks for many years and it has only recently become possible to digitise and view them due to an AHRC funded research project undertaken by CCA and Glasgow School of Art. All of the digitised film is still in a raw state, unedited and, in many cases, unidentified. The aim of this exhibition is to present a progress report on the archival process rather than a completed project. We invite you to help us to identify some of the material or to share your memories of the events that you may have attended.

There will also be samples of the documents and images we are indexing in the Third Eye/CCA archive and a small exhibition of photographs by the Glasgow photographer George Oliver who documented the early days of the Third Eye Centre.

Another gallery will be devoted to contemporary Glasgow-based artists creating new work in response to the idea of archives and the process of archiving.

In the week following the exhibition there will be a series of workshop days in the galleries. Curators of other specialist archives will present talks on their collections and lead discussions on various aspects of the archive as it relates to contemporary art.

A number of screening and panel events will then roll out across 2012/13 which will focus in on some of the edited subject matter. This will initially take place between Street Level Photoworks and CCA.

For full exhibition details visit the CCA website www.cca-glasgow.com