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

The Third Eye Centre Presents...

Alongside the visual arts programme from the first days of the Third Eye Centre the centre developed and supported a significant schedule of live theatre performances, presenting  local and national theatre groups such as TraverseTheatre Group, The Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, Scottish Youth Theatre and MovingBeing .  The centre also regularly hosted performances by students from The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), including this 1976 double bill of Brecht featuring a young Ruby Wax.

Image Credit: Third Eye Centre/CCA Archive

 

The archive material reveals that the Third Eye Centre was a site of experimentation for young theatrical talent, providing a stage for innovative theatre groups like Joint-Stock and its director Max-Stafford-Clark.  Crucial to the longevity of the lively theatre scene in Scotland, the centre also offered a forum for playwrights’ critical discursion through regular workshops and readings.  Supporting the theatre network as well as the live performance is a precedent maintained by the cultural tenants at the CCA, PlaywrightsStudio Scotland, Vanishing Point and Cryptic.

Leading the Way

Following the St John Ogilvie exhibition in 1979 the Third Eye Centre maintained its precedent for engaging communities beyond visual art when it teamed up with the Association in Scotland to Research into Astronautics to produce The High Frontier.

Image Credit: The Third Eye Centre Archive

‘One of the most ambitious spaceflight exhibitions ever held in the UK’, exhibits drew from photographic coverage of various national and international space programmes, along site models and actual space hardware.  A full supporting programme of events and seminars included Spaced Out season of Science Fiction Film at the GFT.

The exhibition catalogue discusses the imperative issues and questions surrounding space research with an enthusiasm and imagination that seems somewhat outmoded now after the public excitement and novelty of space exploration has faded.  This then innovative concept of collaboration between visual arts orgnaisations and divergent communities remains so and is still prevalent at the CCA today.  But public issues and interests change and innovations become commonplace, and as a consequence, the content of these pervious collaborations perhaps no longer retain their place at the front line of  our interest...