CORNELIUS CARDEW: PLAY FOR TODAY

5 November – 13 December 2009

Private view Wednesday 4 November, 18.30 – 20.30

Please follow this link to view a preview and feature in The Wire Magazine

Please follow this link to listen to tracks by Cornelius Cardew/AMM on The Wire

Please follow this link to listen to Rob Stone & presenter Stuart Maconie on BBC 6

PLease follow this link to view a review on Frieze

The exhibition Cornelius Cardew: Play for Today pays tribute to the work of the experimental
British composer Cornelius Cardew (1936–1981) and to the activities of the Scratch Orchestra
(1969–74). It presents a selection of the various forms of graphic expression that were vital to
the development of Cardew’s ideas, from the abstract shapes of Treatise, through to diagrams
and visual instructions, letters and transcripts of discontent, song lyrics and finally to the more
functional agitprop role of graphics as the conveyer of political message.
Cardew studied at the Royal Academy of Music in the late 1950s and afterwards worked as an
assistant to composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne. He was responsible for introducing
the work of American avant-garde musicians such as John Cage and La Monte Young to
European audiences.

Installation at The Drawing Room 2009

Cardew’s blueprint for Treatise (1963–7) is central to the exhibition. In this 193-page graphic
score Cardew uses lines, symbols and abstract shapes in a bid to release the performer from the constraints of traditional musical notation. Schooltime Compositions (1967) is the score
for an opera that marks Cardew’s progression towards ‘music as an expression of human
relations’. These ideas were developed through the Scratch Orchestra, whose membership
included artists associated with Fluxus, musicians and non-musicians. This group represents
one of the most radical forms of improvisatory, cross-disciplinary and collective art-making
of this period. During 1970 –1 Scratch Orchestra concerts and happenings, some carefully
planned and others impromptu, took place throughout the country, in town halls, on the
street, outside Euston station, in the National Gallery or on the London Underground. The
exhibition includes Hanne Boenisch’s documentary film ‘Journey to the North Pole’ (1971),
which captures the Scratch Orchestra on tour at a pivotal point for the organisation.

In 1971–2 Cardew became engaged in a radical reconsideration of all his work up to this time and
adopted a Marxist-Leninist position. He began his book, Stockhausen Serves Imperialism (1974),
in which he virulently attacks not only the music of Cage and Stockhausen, but his own, with the
statement ‘This book raises more questions than it answers’. The Cardew exhibition that Grant
Watson curated with Adrian Rifkin at M HKA, in summer 2008, was staged in the manner of a
question. The questions and contradictions inherent to Cardew’s diverse practice have been
pursued, in collaboration with Grant and Rob Stone, in Play for Today: Cornelius Cardew, a book
and a symposium at the ICA. This exhibition provides evidence of Cardew’s voracious appetite
for tackling challenging issues and ideas and demonstrates the integrity of his approach.
The exhibition display system ‘Shelf for Cardew’ is designed by artist Luca Frei who was born
in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1976. The exhibition also includes ‘Journey to the North Pole’, 1971, directed by Hanne Boenisch, 45’, 16mm. (With thanks to Ruth Hilton.)

Archive material kindly lent by Horace Cardew, Brigid and Laurie Scott-Baker, Carole Finer and Richard Ascough.

Cornelius Cardew: Play for Today is produced in collaboration with M HKA, Antwerp and co-curated by Grant Watson.

CARDEW WEEKEND IN COLLABORATION WITH THE ICA

Part of ICA Calling Out Of Context season

21 & 22 November 2009, ICA, London

‘Play for Today’: Cornelius Cardew’: a symposium

This symposium aims to remake rather than repeat the legacy of Cardew and the Scratch Orchestra.  Through talks, performances and panel discussions the questions and contradictions that Cardew’s practice incorporated will be replayed and re-evaluated for their contemporary relevance.

The first day of the symposium includes contributions from a wide range of participants, including John Tilbury (musician and Cardew collaborator and biographer), Grant Watson (curator at MUHKA, Antwerp), Adrian Rifkin (Professor of Art Writing, Goldsmiths College), artist-duo the Otolith Group and artist and musician Lawrence Abu Hamdan. As a complement to the symposium, and over the course of both days, international sound collective Ultra-red is leading a performative enquiry into Cardew’s work which mirrors the ten-hour performance of Cardew’s Schooltime Compositions that occurred at the ICA forty years ago, in 1969.

The second day of the Cornelius Cardew symposium begins with performances of the composer’s works, including ‘Autumn ‘60’ and Paragraphs 3 and 6 of ‘The Great Learning’, directed by Dave Smith and John Tilbury. The day continues with a discussion that includes contributions from sonic artist John Levack Drever,  Andrea Phillips (Director, Curating Architecture, Goldsmiths College) and Marcel Swiboda (lecturer in cultural theory, University of Leeds). In the Lower Gallery Ultra-red are continuing their performative enquiry into Cardew’s work. The day concludes with artist Beatrice Gibson presenting a work inspired by Cardew’s ‘The Great Learning’.

To book please visit the ICA website and follow the link to Calling Out Of Context, or phone our box office on 020 7930 3647.The tickets for one day of the conference are £8 (£7 for ICA members) or £12 (£10 for ICA members) for both days.

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‘Cornelius Cardew: Play for Today’: a book

This book was co-published by The Drawing Room and MuHKA, Antwerp,  in collaboration with Middlesex University. In this 112 page book extracts from ‘Treatise’, ‘Schooltime Compositions’, ‘Nature Study Notes’ and other visual material are interspersed with essays by Michael Parsons (composer, performer and co-founder of the Scratch Orchestra), Andrea Phillips (Director, Curating Architecture, Goldsmiths, University of London), Adrian Rifkin (Professor of Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London), Rob Stone (Senior Research Fellow, Visual Culture Research Group, Middlesex University)  , John Tilbury (musician and Cardew collaborator and biographer), international artists’ collective Ultra-red and Grant Watson and a photo-essay by the Otolith Group.  These artists, writers and curators pursue and rekindle the questions and contradictions that Cardew’s practice incorporated.

Play for Today: Cornelius Cardew symposium and book in collaboration with Middlesex University and M HKA, Antwerp.

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'Shelf for Cardew' by artist Luca Frei

The installation is part of a series of works (9th Istanbul Biennial; Published & Be Damned, Casco, Utrecht, 2005; Disobedience, Nottingham Contemporary, 2008, Search for the Spirit, Muhka, Antwerp 2009), which explores the potentials of sculpture as both an autonomous entity as well as en element of mediation for the presentation of other material.

Luca Frei, Untitled, 1999 (Photo Luca Frei)

Luca Frei was born in Lugano, Switzerland in 1976 and lives in Malmö, Sweden.

Recent solo exhibitions: 2009: Swiss Cultural Institute, Milano; Statements, Art 40, Basel (with Balice Hertling). 2008: Watch Out, Studio Dabbeni, Lugano; Studies/Play, Lunds Konsthall, Lund; Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh. 2007: Elastic Gallery, Malmö.

Recent group exhibitions: 2009: Search for the Spirit, MuHKA, Antwerp; Swiss Art Awards, Basel; It’s not for reading, it’s for making, FormContent, London; Audio Video Disco, Kunsthalle Zurich. 2008: After October, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York; Archaeology of Longing, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; A Town, Not a City, Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen; Object, The Undeniable Success of Operations, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Amsterdam. 2007: Modelle für Morgen, EU Kunsthalle, Köln; Imagine Action, Lisson Gallery, London; Der Prozess, Prague Biennale 3, Prague.