Ideas into Action 1965–1980

Mary Kelly, Post-Partum Document. Documentation III: Analysed Markings And Diary Perspective Schema (Experimentum Mentis III: Weaning from the Dyad)  1975

These panels form one part of a much larger work that documents the relationship between Kelly and her son over a period of six years. Here, she takes drawings and scribbles done in chalk or crayon by her son and overlays them with typewritten reflections on conversations with him as he begins nursery school. Drawing on feminist thinking of the time she explores the contradictions between working as an artist and her role as a mother – between ‘my lived experience and my analysis of that experience’.

Gallery label, November 2018

Janet Nathan, Zeloso  1979

Zeloso 1979 is typical of Nathan’s early constructions in mixed media, a number of which explore the format of a cross. It takes its colour predominantly from the muted tones of wood and metal juxtaposed against sections of red painted board. The materials were sourced from skips or found as driftwood on the shoreline and are left in their natural and weathered state. The work’s asymmetrical arrangement of stark fragments emanates what historian Mary Rose Beaumont has described as ‘a fragile air of spirituality’, its cross-shape formation leading her to see it as a kind of altarpiece (Beaumont 1988, p.3). She goes on to note, ‘The cruciform shape has been part of the form consciousness of Western civilisation for at least the last 2,000 years, carrying with it a heavy load of associations. In some of [Nathan’s] constructions the shape of the cross is unmistakable; always there is a poignancy and an inescapably haunting presence’ (Beaumont 1988, p.3).

Katherine Gili, Vertical IV  1975

Vertical IV 1975 is a freestanding steel sculpture which has been zinc sprayed and painted brown. Standing over two metres high, it is constructed from flat pieces of steel, bolted and welded together. Rising from the ground at different angles, its primary components are three long planes of steel that visually cohere into an abstract form akin to an extended tree structure. The arrangement of the work, with its variously angled planes, invites the viewer to move around it, experiencing it in its changing form, depending on the viewing position.

Penny Slinger, End of the Line 2  1977

This is one of five photo-collages in Tate’s collection – Bird in the Hand, End of the Line 2, Perspective, Diamond Sutra / Deliverance and Dust to Dust (Tate T15174–T15178) – from a series originally published in book form in 1977 as An Exorcism by Villiers Publications for Empty-Eye. For An Exorcism, Slinger staged her own mises-en-scène in the then abandoned Lilford Hall near Peterborough in Northamptonshire, producing performative self-portraits over the course of seven years in the manner of early surrealists such as Claude Cahun, Hannah Höch and Dorothea Behrens. In these she employed the tools of the surrealist movement to explore the feminist psyche, delving into the unconscious and subconscious in the pursuit of the psychic integration which she understood to be the cornerstone of self-liberation. As well as examining the idea of the self, the series looks at liberation, sex, desire, the dream realm and memory. It was created in the tradition of the classical ‘photo-romance’, taking inspiration from works by Max Ernst such as La femme 100 têtes 1929 and Une semaine de bonté 1934 (as a student at the Royal College of Art, London in the late 1960s, Slinger had written her thesis on Ernst). The theatricality of the staged scenes may stem from the fact that Slinger was also involved in the dramatic arts with the all-women theatre troupe Holocaust in 1971, as well as appearing in the avant-garde feature film The Other Side of the Underneath (1972), directed by Jane Arden, and working on the production and design for Pablo Picasso’s play The Four Little Girls at the Open Space Theatre, London in 1971.

Penny Slinger, Dust to Dust  1970–7

This is one of five photo-collages in Tate’s collection – Bird in the Hand, End of the Line 2, Perspective, Diamond Sutra / Deliverance and Dust to Dust (Tate T15174–T15178) – from a series originally published in book form in 1977 as An Exorcism by Villiers Publications for Empty-Eye. For An Exorcism, Slinger staged her own mises-en-scène in the then abandoned Lilford Hall near Peterborough in Northamptonshire, producing performative self-portraits over the course of seven years in the manner of early surrealists such as Claude Cahun, Hannah Höch and Dorothea Behrens. In these she employed the tools of the surrealist movement to explore the feminist psyche, delving into the unconscious and subconscious in the pursuit of the psychic integration which she understood to be the cornerstone of self-liberation. As well as examining the idea of the self, the series looks at liberation, sex, desire, the dream realm and memory. It was created in the tradition of the classical ‘photo-romance’, taking inspiration from works by Max Ernst such as La femme 100 têtes 1929 and Une semaine de bonté 1934 (as a student at the Royal College of Art, London in the late 1960s, Slinger had written her thesis on Ernst). The theatricality of the staged scenes may stem from the fact that Slinger was also involved in the dramatic arts with the all-women theatre troupe Holocaust in 1971, as well as appearing in the avant-garde feature film The Other Side of the Underneath (1972), directed by Jane Arden, and working on the production and design for Pablo Picasso’s play The Four Little Girls at the Open Space Theatre, London in 1971.

Penny Slinger, Perspective  1970–7

This is one of five photo-collages in Tate’s collection – Bird in the Hand, End of the Line 2, Perspective, Diamond Sutra / Deliverance and Dust to Dust (Tate T15174–T15178) – from a series originally published in book form in 1977 as An Exorcism by Villiers Publications for Empty-Eye. For An Exorcism, Slinger staged her own mises-en-scène in the then abandoned Lilford Hall near Peterborough in Northamptonshire, producing performative self-portraits over the course of seven years in the manner of early surrealists such as Claude Cahun, Hannah Höch and Dorothea Behrens. In these she employed the tools of the surrealist movement to explore the feminist psyche, delving into the unconscious and subconscious in the pursuit of the psychic integration which she understood to be the cornerstone of self-liberation. As well as examining the idea of the self, the series looks at liberation, sex, desire, the dream realm and memory. It was created in the tradition of the classical ‘photo-romance’, taking inspiration from works by Max Ernst such as La femme 100 têtes 1929 and Une semaine de bonté 1934 (as a student at the Royal College of Art, London in the late 1960s, Slinger had written her thesis on Ernst). The theatricality of the staged scenes may stem from the fact that Slinger was also involved in the dramatic arts with the all-women theatre troupe Holocaust in 1971, as well as appearing in the avant-garde feature film The Other Side of the Underneath (1972), directed by Jane Arden, and working on the production and design for Pablo Picasso’s play The Four Little Girls at the Open Space Theatre, London in 1971.

Donald Locke, Dageraad From the Air  1978–9

Dageraad was a sugar plantation. In 1763 it was the site of Guyana’s first rebellion of enslaved people. The painting evokes the plantation system that shaped Guyana’s history under Dutch and British colonial rule. The grid reflects the intervention on the land, sectioned by dykes and drainage canals. Donald Locke said: ‘In the Caribbean, the most dominant sociological event is the plantation system. I grew up at a time when the plantation system was still in existence. It dominated the sky; it dominated your life from beginning to end.’

Gallery label, September 2023

Romany Eveleigh, Pages  1976

Sir Horace Ové CBE, Darcus Howe Speaks at the Mangrove Demonstration  1970, printed 2023

On 9 August 1970, a march took place to protest the police harassment of Black communities, including at The Mangrove, a Caribbean restaurant in Notting Hill, London. Nine protesters were charged with incitement to riot. In these photographs, Horace Ové captures significant moments from the march and subsequent trial. All nine activists were eventually acquitted, signalling the first judicial acknowledgment of racial hatred within the Metropolitan Police. These photographs come from a body of work Ové made between 1967 and 1970 documenting key events in the British civil rights movement.

Gallery label, August 2024

Sir Horace Ové CBE, Barbara Beese at the Mangrove Demonstration  1970, printed 2023

On 9 August 1970, a march took place to protest the police harassment of Black communities, including at The Mangrove, a Caribbean restaurant in Notting Hill, London. Nine protesters were charged with incitement to riot. In these photographs, Horace Ové captures significant moments from the march and subsequent trial. All nine activists were eventually acquitted, signalling the first judicial acknowledgment of racial hatred within the Metropolitan Police. These photographs come from a body of work Ové made between 1967 and 1970 documenting key events in the British civil rights movement.

Gallery label, August 2024

Chris Killip, Launch of the supertanker, Everett F. Wells, Wallsend, Tyneside  1976, printed 2012–13

This one of a large group of black and white photographs in Tate’s collection taken in the north-east of England by the British photographer Chris Killip in the mid to late 1970s (see Tate P81021–P81037). Though born on the Isle of Man – which he also photographed (see Tate P20400–P20422) – Killip moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the early 1970s and began to photograph the north-east of England extensively. Tate’s collection contains examples of his series General North East 1975–9 and Shipbuilding 1972–81, as well as the related series Huddersfield, Yorkshire 1973–4 (Tate P81015–P81020) and Seaside, Tyneside and Wearside 1975–6 (see Tate P81038–P81041).

David Lamelas, Time  1970

This photograph documents the first performance of Time. A group of people stand in a line. The first person tells the time to the next person. They ‘receive’ the time and ‘hold on to it’ before announcing it to the next participant. The last person announces it ‘to the world’ in the language of their choice. This image shows Time being performed in Les Arcs in the French Alps. It is currently taking place on the ramp of the Turbine Hall. Members of the public are invited to participate.

Gallery label, October 2016

Rose English, Harriet and Plait  1976

Harriet and Plait 1976 consists of six almost identical black and white photographs arranged sequentially in two rows of three, from top left to bottom right. They depict the head and shoulders of a naked woman sitting with her back to the camera in front of a window at the head of a table covered in a white cloth. Her long plaited hair is stretched out behind her on the tablecloth. In the second image in the sequence, a pair of scissors appears in the scene at one corner of the table; in the next image, they have moved closer to the plait, the end of which is then snipped off and finally placed on a plate to resemble a triangle of pubic hair in the final photographs. Harriet and Plait is a unique work.

Chris Killip, Windowless houses, Killingworth New Town, Tyneside  1975, printed 2012–13

This one of a large group of black and white photographs in Tate’s collection taken in the north-east of England by the British photographer Chris Killip in the mid to late 1970s (see Tate P81021–P81037). Though born on the Isle of Man – which he also photographed (see Tate P20400–P20422) – Killip moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the early 1970s and began to photograph the north-east of England extensively. Tate’s collection contains examples of his series General North East 1975–9 and Shipbuilding 1972–81, as well as the related series Huddersfield, Yorkshire 1973–4 (Tate P81015–P81020) and Seaside, Tyneside and Wearside 1975–6 (see Tate P81038–P81041).

Chris Killip, Woman walking past blast furnaces, Grangetown, Teeside  1976, printed 2012–13

This one of a large group of black and white photographs in Tate’s collection taken in the north-east of England by the British photographer Chris Killip in the mid to late 1970s (see Tate P81021–P81037). Though born on the Isle of Man – which he also photographed (see Tate P20400–P20422) – Killip moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the early 1970s and began to photograph the north-east of England extensively. Tate’s collection contains examples of his series General North East 1975–9 and Shipbuilding 1972–81, as well as the related series Huddersfield, Yorkshire 1973–4 (Tate P81015–P81020) and Seaside, Tyneside and Wearside 1975–6 (see Tate P81038–P81041).

John Latham, One-Second Drawing (17” 2002) (Time Signature 5:1)  1972

In the early 1970s, Latham devised a series of ‘One Second Drawings’, of which this is an example. In them, he returned to the issue of representing his idea of a ‘least event’. Latham produced a set of instructions which specified that 60 ‘drawings’ were to be created, one per day, by spraying a piece of white blockboard for one second with black acrylic paint. The numerical sequence in the title of this example (17” 2002) records the time of its execution (the 17th second of the 20th minute of the second hour), followed by the date (14 December 1972).

Gallery label, September 2016

Cecilia Vicuña, Violeta Parra  1973

This painting is part of a series called Heroes of the Revolution. In 1952, singer and folklorist Violeta Parra embarked on a tour around rural Chile, recording and compiling folk music. She rescued a tradition that most Chileans had forgotten. This led to an artistic movement known as Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song). The painting commemorates Parra’s work and struggle before she took her own life in 1967. ‘My paintings are political in a personal way’, Vicuña has explained. ‘My canvases are born as representations of a socialist paradise where everything is possible’.

Gallery label, September 2023

Sir Horace Ové CBE, The Mangrove Nine at Court House  1970, printed 2023

On 9 August 1970, a march took place to protest the police harassment of Black communities, including at The Mangrove, a Caribbean restaurant in Notting Hill, London. Nine protesters were charged with incitement to riot. In these photographs, Horace Ové captures significant moments from the march and subsequent trial. All nine activists were eventually acquitted, signalling the first judicial acknowledgment of racial hatred within the Metropolitan Police. These photographs come from a body of work Ové made between 1967 and 1970 documenting key events in the British civil rights movement.

Gallery label, August 2024

Chris Killip, Trade Union Official, Scottswood, Tyneside  1979, printed 2012–13

This one of a large group of black and white photographs in Tate’s collection taken in the north-east of England by the British photographer Chris Killip in the mid to late 1970s (see Tate P81021–P81037). Though born on the Isle of Man – which he also photographed (see Tate P20400–P20422) – Killip moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the early 1970s and began to photograph the north-east of England extensively. Tate’s collection contains examples of his series General North East 1975–9 and Shipbuilding 1972–81, as well as the related series Huddersfield, Yorkshire 1973–4 (Tate P81015–P81020) and Seaside, Tyneside and Wearside 1975–6 (see Tate P81038–P81041).