Untitled, 1956


About

Untitled, 1956 is the first of an ambitious trilogy of exhibitions produced in collaboration between Flat Time House (FTHo) and the Roberts Institute of Art (RIA). Each exhibition explores a different facet of the complex network of ideas and relationships surrounding John Latham’s work in dialogue with important works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Throughout his life, Latham was relentlessly experimental in his choice of medium, rapidly moving between materials yet always applying a rich symbolism to his use of each. This first exhibition brings together a key early piece by Latham, Untitled, 1956, with impressive works by Phyllida Barlow, Bram Bogart and Antoni Tàpies, which share with Latham an intuitive investigation into material quality, presented alongside a new commission by Grace Ndiritu.

Alongside the three exhibitions, each taking its name from the key Latham work they contain, FTHo and RIA are commissioning an artist to produce a new performative work in response. Untitled, 1956 will present Grace Ndiritu’s commissioned carpet which incorporates a found image of a 1975 Artist Placement Group meeting. Alongside this will be documentation of new and existing performative works by Ndiritu including a live event entitled Event Structure: Holistic Reading Room (2022) which will take place at FTHo before the exhibition opening. Ndiritu’s intervention seeks to transform notions of group experiments from history to the present day through social practice. This commission reveals a resonance between her practice and Latham’s lifelong aim to bring reflective and intuitive modes of thinking to wider society – most clearly manifested in his work with the Artist Placement Group, a pioneering organisation that negotiated placements for artists within industry and government.