Liam Gillick

The central character of Erasmus is Late is Erasmus Darwin, opium-eater and brother of the more famous Charles who is indeed late. Late for a dinner party that he himself is giving and whose illustrious guests, already assembled around his table, include: Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense under Kennedy; Masura Ibuka, co-founder of Sony; and Murry Wilson, father of Brian Wilson.

Whilst the guests wait, Erasmus dawdles through contemporary London becoming waylaid by different sites, which represent for Gillick, the development of free-thinking; Gillian Gillick, the artist’s mother, illustrates these sites with line drawings. Erasmus Darwin epitomises for Gillick the activity of free-thinking; a form of political pursuit dependent on wealth and leisure and problematic in its relationship to ‘unfree’ thought and the working classes.

On one level a guide to contemporary London seen through the eyes of a Georgian, Erasmus is Late is also an examination of pre-Marxist positions, an ill-researched investigation of a Utopian optimism that is struggling to predict the future.

Originally published 1995.… (más)

No less versatile in his writing than in his installations, films, architecture and sculpture, Liam Gillick unites his critical essays in this collection, most of which were originally printed in art magazines or exhibition catalogues. Lauded for his ingenious reinterpretation of Conceptual and Minimalist art, Liam Gillick has often used language, whether in type on a wall or on a page, as a site of artistic, theoretical and political intervention. He reveals himself here as a witness of and major actor in the largely European 1990s art scene that included Philippe Parreno, Pierre Huyghe, Carsten Höller, Angela Bulloch, Douglas Gordon and Rirkrit Tiravanija. A key publication of discussions, references, and artistic engagements of the 1990s, the book also allows an examination of the renewed importance at this time of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, John Baldessari and Allen Ruppersberg.… (más)