Art

Polytechnic: come with us now to a journey to the 1970s

Lauren Down | Sunday 3 October, 2010 17:58

David Critchley, Pieces I Never Did, 1979, 31 minutes, U-matic transferred to DVD; 3 monitors, Exhibition view, Raven Row, Courtesy the artist, Photograph by Marcus J. Leith

The late 70s was a period of instability and uncertainty in the UK as Thatcher’s Conservative government saw a rapid rise in unemployment and de-industrialisation. Focusing on the generation that emerged amidst this background of public un-rest, Richard Grayson and Raven Row director Alex Sainsbury organised Polytechnic.

Taking inspiration from the early 1980s Newcastle collaborative The Basement Group, this show is set to include everything from installations and poster art to VHS work.

Featuring pieces from John Adams, Ian Bourn, Susan Hiller, Stuart Marshall, Cordelia Swann and Graham Young, the gallery space highlights how new media’s accessibility challenged the capitalist practices of painting and sculpting. As new technologies developed, so too did their application as visual media grew beyond its mainstream state media province and gradually took on an artistic narrative.

Every room is set to be a disorientating cacophony of noise, as loud recordings ring out against ambient sounds and over snugly fit headphones whilst nuances of nostalgia envelope the space. Susan Hiller’s piece deals most directly with humanity, time, immortality and memory as the array of fuzzy, monochromatic works earnestly convey socio political commentary that is as relevant for the heightened tensions of today’s society as it was for the rapidly expanding world of the 70s and 80s.

Polytechnic, Raven Row, 56 Artillery Lane, , London, E1 7LS, 020 7377 4300 ,Until 7 November

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