19 May 2010

Book launch - Show and Tell: A Chronicle of Group Material

Working collaboratively on projects 'dedicated to social communication and political change', Group Material's work continues to influence artists and curators. Through a series of exhibitions and projects, Group Material radically overhauled curatorial thought, setting art alongside artefacts, documentary material and store-bought objects. Exhibitions often took place beyond traditional art establishments, on billboards, in subways, buses and in newspaper supplements. Projects included The People's Choice, Democracy, Da Zi Baos and AIDS Timeline.

Show And Tell: A Chronicle of Group Material is the first monograph on the collaborative, organised by former group members in keeping with the methods and aims Group Material employed, the book charts the origins, processes, developments, projects and contexts of the group's activities, and draws heavily from Group Material's archive, including original documents, photographs, drawings, correspondence, anecdotal information and texts.

Group Material created 45 projects during its period of activities (1979–1996), each represented through installation photography and information from original proposals, exhibition statements, press releases, responses, etc. One emblematic exhibition project, AIDS Timeline, is examined in detail, from collected material and newly conducted interviews. Essays by Julie Ault, Tim Rollins, Sabrina Locks and Doug Ashford further illuminate the methods and principles of Group Material's practice.

The launch of Show and Tell at Casco forms part of 'Come Alive!' - a series of public and discursive events during 2010 to create a link between Casco's twentieth anniversary and contemporary artistic and social practices that explore alternative forms of social existence and organisation through critical engagement with Casco's recent past.

The book launch will be introduced by Julie Ault, a founding member of Group Material, and editor of Show and Tell.

Show and Tell: A Chronicle of Group Material will also be launched at The Showroom, London and Buchholz Galerie, Cologne. It will also form the basis of a conference at Artists Space, New York, later this year.


Show and Tell: A Chronicle of Group Material
Edited by Julie Ault
Essays by Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, Sabrina Locks, Tim Rollins
ISBN: 9780956192813
www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk

Book Launch:
Thursday, May 27, 19:00 to 20:30
Casco
Nieuwekade 213-215
3511 RW Utrecht
The Netherlands
www.cascoprojects.org
T/F: +31 (0)30 231 9995
info@cascoprojects.org