Clive Robertson
Then + Then Again – Practices Within an Artist-Run Culture
October 17–November 17, 2007

Clive Robertson is a media artist, cultural critic and publisher whose new book, Policy Matters – Administrations of Art Culture was published by YYZBooks, Toronto in 2006. He is the co-editor with Alain-Martin Richard of Performance art in/au Canada 1970-1990, Éditions Intervention, 1991. He currently teaches contemporary art history, cultural policy and performance studies at Queen’s University, Kingston. Robertson began his own interdisciplinary art and curatorial practices in Cardiff (Wales) in 1969. Emigrating to Calgary in 1971, he was a founding director of the performance-publishing collective, W.O.R.K.S.(with Paul Woodrow); Voicespondence, an audio production and publishing co-operative; the Parachute Center for Cultural Affairs (with Don Mabie and Marcella Bienvenue) and Arton’s Video Publishing. He is a founding editor and publisher of Centerfold (with Marcella Bienvenue) and FUSE magazine (with Lisa Steele and Tom Sherman). Robertson was a member of the Independent Artists Union, and a National Spokesperson for ANNPAC/RACA. His writings have appeared in Artscanada, Art and Artists, High Performance, La Mamelle, Inter, Parachute, Parallélogramme, Remote Control, C Magazine, Centerfold and Fuse.

Then + Then Again – Practices Within an Artist-Run Culture is an archival retrospective exhibition curated by Clive Robertson. The show consists of 4 DVDs, 6 CDs and a series of photo-text cards that together document Robertson’s performance, video and audio works alongside additional curatorial and publishing collaborations he has instigated from 1970 to the present.

The installation provides a unique opportunity to sample and make connections between artist collectives networking, the rights and responsibilities that have shaped an artist-run culture as well as the potential for organizational collaborations both within and outside of Canada. Highlights of this exhibition include genealogies of the Calgary-based W.O.R.K.S. collective; the cultural journalism activisms of Centerfold/Fuse magazine; early 1980s music videos; an unseen interview with Green Party advocate and artist Joseph Beuys; publishing prototypes in audio art and video; curatorial contributions to the start up of Canadian performance and video festivals; and new re-editioned and CDs from the indie Voicespondence label including work from De Dub Poets, The Government, the Gayap Rhythm Drummers, Clive Robertson and a new 2007 release, H5N1, from Nerve Theory.

The premise of Then + Then Again as a touring exhibition is that it be accessible both within and outside of the exhibition sites. Depending upon the administrative capacity of each exhibition site – this means that visitors can borrow the displayed materials for home viewing and access audio archive files for listening.

Then + Then Again has been compiled from an archive of some 600 images, 40 hours of videotape and 60 hours of audio materials and each site receives a variation of the archival display project.

Then + Then Again is produced in collaboration with Modern Fuel, Kingston. Gjennifer Snider is the project’s Tour Coordinator.

The exhibition tour was supported by the OAC Touring and Collaborations Program, 2006.

Special thanks to the Art Gallery of Windsor, BookFest Windsor and the University of Windsor School of Visual Arts for their generous assistance and collaboration and to the volunteers who assisted in the installation.