#stephenwillats

#tbt - More #contemporary than ever. The Personal Concept Bag by Stephen Willats (1993) seen at the Mumok Vienna 2012 There are pictures in my photo library, where I come back to scroll through, and then find myself jumping right into the work or message they want to tell us, diving in ideas, concepts and thoughts. From the impressive Multiple Clothing Concept Series (1991-1998) using #Letraset text to display different means of personal self-expression combined to form a public outface on the side of a practical object - the bag. Willats said: We think of the shopping bag as a highly personal extension of the self, but it is also a container of objects that reflects a person's behaviour, mostly daily routines ... #StephenWillats #britishart #thebag #actionriot #identitydiva #intentionprovoke (hier: Mumok, Museum of Modern Art, in Vienna.)

NEW IN THE BOOKSHOP: THE MUSEUM OF RHYTHM (2018) • The Museum of Rhythm is a speculative institution that engages rhythm as a tool for interrogating the foundations of modernity and the sensual complex of time in daily experience. When entering a larger cultural infrastructure such as the art museum, it juxtaposes modern and contemporary art with ethnographic research, cinema, music, and scientific instruments to set in resonance a critical apparatus and conduct exercises in Rhythmanalysis. • This book, and the exhibition upon which it is based, is an outcome of durational research that sees art as one of the means by which the ideologies of rhythm are implemented. Hence alongside artworks it, by necessity, includes objects, films, and documents connected with the history of the development of time measurement, labor monitoring devices, choreography, and music practice, which enable the human being to experience more complex rhythms. • The book includes visual documentation of the exhibition as well as essays and texts by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Erick Beltrán, Robert Brain, Francisco Camacho Herrera, Natasha Ginwala, Robert Horvitz, Ken Jacobs, Elisabeth Lebovici, Ernst Mach, Angela Melitopoulos, Daniel Muzyczuk, Nana Oforiatta-Ayim, Jean Painlevé, Forrestine Paulay, Kathleen Rivera, Simon Schaffer, Georg Simmel, Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen Willats, and Jason Young. • Available via our website and in the bookshop. • #worldfoodbooks #themuseumofrhythm #sternbergpress #hansrichter #lawrenceabuhamdan #erickbeltran #nanaoforiattaayim #ernstmach #stephenwillats #angelamelitopoulos #danielmuzyczuk #wadadaleosmith #jeanpainleve #franciscocamachoherrera #kenjacobs #natashaginwala #simonschaeffer #manray #hannedarboven (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)

BACK IN THE BOOKSHOP: STEPHEN WILLATS - CONTROL - WORK 1962-1969 This is the first survey of work by Stephen Willats from the sixties. Willats (born and lives in London) was introduced to art as a teenage gallery assistant in 1958 and by 1962 was producing advanced artwork. He embraced the transdiscipli­n­arity of the time, juggling the roles of social scientist, engineer, designer and artist, and developed an art about social interaction, using models derived from cybernetics, the hybrid post-war science of communication. As well as the clothing and furniture made in 1965 when he briefly described himself as a ‘conceptual designer’, Willats’ earliest sculptural series of ‘Manual Variables’ is haptic and interactive. These will be shown alongside early issues of Control, the still-operating magazine he founded in the same period. Its title is a provocation, invoking the cybernetic idea that people can take control of their environments, thereby deflecting the controls of a dominant hierarchy. In 1968 Willats made an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art Oxford in which he presented constructions involving movement and light – some wall-mounted, others large-scale environments – that were informed by his interest in contemporary theories: about probability and prediction, behavioural science, subliminal advertising, and colour in relation to motivation and learning. The display of these at Raven Row will be based on the darkened maze in which they were installed at Oxford, where they were proposed as experimental stimuli for ‘states of consciousness’. Willats’ works on paper from this period elegantly combine cybernetic modelling, architectural graphics and constructivist geometries, and are consistent with his practice of today. However, he abandoned his dynamic constructions at the end of the sixties in pursuit of an art of social interaction beyond gallery and art object, for which he became well-known. This exhibition reconvenes this earlier work for the first time. With texts by Antony Hudek, Emily Pethick, Christabel Stewart and Andrew Wilson. Available via our website and in the bookshop. #worldfoodbooks #stephenwillats #control #ravenrow (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)

The time tumbler is itself an unknown object and a speculative means of slotting new variables into lived reality. Although Willats’s British Museum project was ultimately never realised, and his time machine has not yet seen the light of day, an intriguing series of drawings emerged from these conversations. In diagrammatic works such as Passing Through the Time Tumbler and Re-mixing the Fragments, the time tumbler represents a function that triggers subjective and collective deviations from the dictates of linear time, scrambling and reordering the chaos of fragments that compose everyday experience. In our planned, clockwork world, we are all stuck inside time boxes which organise these fragments in a particular way, composing a normalised image of the present. But, at the same time, we are all potential time tumblers. – John Kelsey

NEW IN THE BOOKSHOP: THE MUSEUM OF RHYTHM (2018) • The Museum of Rhythm is a speculative institution that engages rhythm as a tool for interrogating the foundations of modernity and the sensual complex of time in daily experience. When entering a larger cultural infrastructure such as the art museum, it juxtaposes modern and contemporary art with ethnographic research, cinema, music, and scientific instruments to set in resonance a critical apparatus and conduct exercises in Rhythmanalysis. • This book, and the exhibition upon which it is based, is an outcome of durational research that sees art as one of the means by which the ideologies of rhythm are implemented. Hence alongside artworks it, by necessity, includes objects, films, and documents connected with the history of the development of time measurement, labor monitoring devices, choreography, and music practice, which enable the human being to experience more complex rhythms. • The book includes visual documentation of the exhibition as well as essays and texts by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Erick Beltrán, Robert Brain, Francisco Camacho Herrera, Natasha Ginwala, Robert Horvitz, Ken Jacobs, Elisabeth Lebovici, Ernst Mach, Angela Melitopoulos, Daniel Muzyczuk, Nana Oforiatta-Ayim, Jean Painlevé, Forrestine Paulay, Kathleen Rivera, Simon Schaffer, Georg Simmel, Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen Willats, and Jason Young. • Available via our website and in the bookshop. • #worldfoodbooks #themuseumofrhythm #sternbergpress #hansrichter #lawrenceabuhamdan #erickbeltran #nanaoforiattaayim #ernstmach #stephenwillats #angelamelitopoulos #danielmuzyczuk #wadadaleosmith #jeanpainleve #franciscocamachoherrera #kenjacobs #natashaginwala #simonschaeffer #manray #hannedarboven #simoneforti (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)

'Living with Practical Realities’ is the first work in which, as the title implies, Willats used the real environment of his subject rather than enacting or reconstructing events for the photographs in the work. He had been concerned for several years with the ways in which people construct their own worlds in relation to the social or physical constraints put upon them. In this work he was anxious to investigate the way in which buildings represent, or are symbols for, the culture we live in. The tower block seemed an obvious candidate for study. Willats, who was brought up in West London, chose Skeffington Court in Hayes because it was a model development in the local authority's eyes and had been opened by Harold Wilson in a spirit of confidence about this form of housing. It was also close to a high density low-rise development with which he hoped to make comparisons. He began by photographing the outside of the block and through this introduced himself to several of the tenants. (He used this material for another work ‘Vertical Living’ concurrent with ‘Living with Practical Realities’). The theme that Willats had in mind was the discovery and portrayal of the isolation of people within the tower block. He was introduced to Mrs Moran, who lived alone, and who was, in addition, elderly and thus further disadvantaged in relation to the society around her. Willats explained his work to her and began a collaboration which involved him photographing the flat and her, and tape recording interviews: this process continued for six months. Willats evolved a system for analysing his material which divided it into three approximate subject areas, economic, social and physical, each viewed as creators or instigators of the isolation of the subject. He was keen in the recording and presentation not to suggest an overt political or ideological viewpoint; he wished simply to represent the reality of the old lady's position. He wanted to offer the viewer, through the apparently objective imagery, the opportunity imaginatively to remodel the symbolic world that he had represented. He hoped that the work would act as a freeing agent to allow the viewer to ‘reach into the experience’ of isolation in the tower block, and view ‘aspects of their own cultural situation by viewing someone else's’. The panels are divided horizontally into two ‘concept frames’: these consist of photographs of Mrs Moran above four photographs of objects from her environment, with fragments of text from tape transcripts between them. (The importance of the objects to her was discovered through discussion and from the tapes.) The discrepancy between image and text calls upon an active involvement by the audience to reconcile them. This unit is the concept frame; the top unit is the reality as it exists, the bottom (written by Willats) suggests a possible future. The work is read from top to bottom, viz. the title of the work, or ‘area of attention’, the subject of the work (Mrs Moran) and a question aimed at the viewer, and below that the descriptive ‘concept frame’ (the four images) above Willat's prescriptive ‘concept frame’. This is superimposed on a large image of Mrs Moran used for formal reasons. The work was made in collaboration with Mrs Moran from working drawings made by Willats and modified by the subject. Willats intended to show the work to Mrs Moran exhibited in a gallery, but unfortunately she died before he was able to do so. He is anxious that works such as this should be viewed within an art context, feeling that art should be an agent for social change. 

BACK IN THE BOOKSHOP: STEPHEN WILLATS - CONTROL - WORK 1962-1969 This is the first survey of work by Stephen Willats from the sixties. Willats (born and lives in London) was introduced to art as a teenage gallery assistant in 1958 and by 1962 was producing advanced artwork. He embraced the transdiscipli­n­arity of the time, juggling the roles of social scientist, engineer, designer and artist, and developed an art about social interaction, using models derived from cybernetics, the hybrid post-war science of communication. As well as the clothing and furniture made in 1965 when he briefly described himself as a ‘conceptual designer’, Willats’ earliest sculptural series of ‘Manual Variables’ is haptic and interactive. These will be shown alongside early issues of Control, the still-operating magazine he founded in the same period. Its title is a provocation, invoking the cybernetic idea that people can take control of their environments, thereby deflecting the controls of a dominant hierarchy. In 1968 Willats made an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art Oxford in which he presented constructions involving movement and light – some wall-mounted, others large-scale environments – that were informed by his interest in contemporary theories: about probability and prediction, behavioural science, subliminal advertising, and colour in relation to motivation and learning. The display of these at Raven Row will be based on the darkened maze in which they were installed at Oxford, where they were proposed as experimental stimuli for ‘states of consciousness’. Willats’ works on paper from this period elegantly combine cybernetic modelling, architectural graphics and constructivist geometries, and are consistent with his practice of today. However, he abandoned his dynamic constructions at the end of the sixties in pursuit of an art of social interaction beyond gallery and art object, for which he became well-known. This exhibition reconvenes this earlier work for the first time. With texts by Antony Hudek, Emily Pethick, Christabel Stewart and Andrew Wilson. Available via our website and in the bookshop. #worldfoodbooks #stephenwillats #control #ravenrow (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)

BACK IN THE BOOKSHOP: STEPHEN WILLATS - CONTROL - WORK 1962-1969 This is the first survey of work by Stephen Willats from the sixties. Willats (born and lives in London) was introduced to art as a teenage gallery assistant in 1958 and by 1962 was producing advanced artwork. He embraced the transdiscipli­n­arity of the time, juggling the roles of social scientist, engineer, designer and artist, and developed an art about social interaction, using models derived from cybernetics, the hybrid post-war science of communication. As well as the clothing and furniture made in 1965 when he briefly described himself as a ‘conceptual designer’, Willats’ earliest sculptural series of ‘Manual Variables’ is haptic and interactive. These will be shown alongside early issues of Control, the still-operating magazine he founded in the same period. Its title is a provocation, invoking the cybernetic idea that people can take control of their environments, thereby deflecting the controls of a dominant hierarchy. In 1968 Willats made an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art Oxford in which he presented constructions involving movement and light – some wall-mounted, others large-scale environments – that were informed by his interest in contemporary theories: about probability and prediction, behavioural science, subliminal advertising, and colour in relation to motivation and learning. The display of these at Raven Row will be based on the darkened maze in which they were installed at Oxford, where they were proposed as experimental stimuli for ‘states of consciousness’. Willats’ works on paper from this period elegantly combine cybernetic modelling, architectural graphics and constructivist geometries, and are consistent with his practice of today. However, he abandoned his dynamic constructions at the end of the sixties in pursuit of an art of social interaction beyond gallery and art object, for which he became well-known. This exhibition reconvenes this earlier work for the first time. With texts by Antony Hudek, Emily Pethick, Christabel Stewart and Andrew Wilson. Available via our website and in the bookshop. #worldfoodbooks #stephenwillats #control #ravenrow (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)