‘Order from Chaos: the Dispersal and Arrangement of Eduardo Paolozzi’s Archives’
Kirstie Meehan, Archive and Library Assistant, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Eduardo Paolozzi donated or sold a number of collections of archive material to various institutions over the course of his life, including St Andrew’s University, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate and the National Library of Scotland. The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) accepted a donation of boxes from Paolozzi in 1995, containing letters, books, catalogues, news cuttings, tearsheets and ephemera, as part of a larger gift including sculptures, prints and drawings. Only recently has the NGS begun the process of appraising and arranging their holdings in an effort to make the contents of this archive accessible to researchers.
This paper will consider Paolozzi’s dispersal of archive material as an act of legacy-building, and the effect such dispersal has had upon the accessibility of the material for researchers. It will also examine the ‘Krazy Kat Arkive’ - sold by Paolozzi to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1985 - and question whether it should be considered an archive or a special collection. Additionally, the paper will illustrate the process by which the National Galleries of Scotland have appraised and arranged their holdings, and the efficacy of the project in making the collection available to researchers.
Glen Onwin
From the early nineteen seventies, Onwin has followed a highly individual course as an artist. Early in his career he became fascinated by ecology. To this end he began to observe and study a salt marsh near Dunbar in Scotland. The salt marsh was studied as a phenomenon to be examined with a near scientific approach. He is interested in the structures behind appearances, and the slow changes of material over time.
In the 1970s and 80s, he held exhibitions in a number of venues, including the Scottish Arts council Gallery, Edinburgh. The Serpentine , London. Arnolfini, Bristol. Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and the Third Eye in Glasgow. Major exhibitions of this period include ”Saltmarsh”, “The Recovery of Dissolved Substances”, “The Chymical Garden”. And “Revenges of Nature” at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh in 1988.
In 1992 he used an abandoned chapel in Halifax for a site specific installation , “As Above so Below” organised by the Henry Moore Sculpture Trust. “Flammable Solid Flammable Liquid” an installation exhibited in Tramway, Glasgow,1994. In 1997 he participated in the “Quality of Light” project in association with the Tate, St Ives, his work “Blood of the Pelican” at Geevor Mine explored the processes of extracting tin, relating this to it's meaning and symbolism. In 2003 he completed a collaborative sculpture / architecture project ”An Turas” on the Isle of Tiree in The Inner Hebrides which was short listed for the RIBA Stirling Prize and won Best Building in Scotland 2003. In 2003 he was commissioned to make a permanently sited work for the Scottish Parliament. For ten years Onwin worked on a collaborative land reclamation project in Aberdeenshire “Place Of Origin” which designed and developed a twenty acre site, “Place of Origin “ opened in October 2006. Glen Onwin Lives and works in Edinburgh.
'Water, Earth, Air and Water.
The purpose and use of the artist book in my practice.'
I will discuss three bodies of my work, all made in the last century, which have a related artist book.
“Saltmarsh” 1974 was my first major exhibited work, a small salt marsh on the east coast of Scotland was the source and starting point of this extensive exhibition which examined the nature and materials of this ever changing environment.
“The Recovery of Dissolved Substances” 1978 a work exhibited in five related parts which explored the substance salt from its formation and manufacture through to the psychological impact the substance salt has upon the human mind.
“Flammable Solid Flammable Liquid” a site specific installation made for tramway in Glasgow in 1994. The boxed publication with the same title was assembled over a period of several years after the original work was dismantled.
The artist's books in my practice I see as a means of holding bodies of work together, they act as a tool for preserving the integrity and unity of the works , allowing tangential meanings to emerge long after the original physical work has been dispersed or destroyed.
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