ATTIC ARCHIVE POSTCARDS

The Attic in Union Street produced a set of postcards that were given out to visitors.

They featured some of the correspondents Pete Horobin was communicating with.

Each postcard has the image of a correspondent made entirely from the content of the letters they wrote to each other. These were done using the original cut and paste method, sentences and words physically cut from a page then reassembled and photocopied into these excellent portraits shown above.

So as a wee memento from Retro's recent visit to the Attic, here are the people in the cards above - Chris Horobin (Pete's brother) - Jack Saunders - Stefen Szczelkun - Susan Young - Mark Pawson - Philip Pilkington - Karen Strang - Barry Mitchell.

There is a good 2 part video up on Youtube made in Budapest showing the mountain of material from the Attic Archive they have in storage in the Artpool Gallery.

Boxes and boxes of stuff from Union Street being dipped into!

They go under the title of "From A to A - New Directions" (2 videos).

Here are the links -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUUsa5EQjYE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HppxEPH42c

Courtesy of The Attic Archive.

FOOD ART ACTION

A photo of Pete Horobin with another nude model, this time under the title - Food Art Action.

I think that's a rabbit - or maybe a baby ET..!!

Courtesy of The Attic Archive

DESTRUCTION / CREATION - PART 2 - 1981

[Over the winter of 1981/82 a group of Principal Players met daily in the DATA Attic to improvise with domestic utensils, regular instruments and second-rate machinery. A few of their recordings survive as audio cassettes, some of which have been digitalised.
Listen to the Elephants – recorded live in the DATA Attic one winter afternoon by the Principal Players - Pete Horobin, Gerry Mitchell, and Tam McGibbon.]

Continuing with Horobin's journal, above is the lowdown on the the 2nd half of the Destruction / Creation event at Laings

Below is the "Listen To The Elephants" track recorded by The Principal Players (plural). A whimsical wee jam session that had them beating out their best Johnny Wakelin jungle rhythm, and with Pete doing a rather fine impression of Barbara Woodhouse!

Courtesy of The Attic Archive.

THE PRINCIPAL PLAYER - EARLY 80'S

[THE PRINCIPAL PLAYER
Throughout the ten-year DATA project, Pete Horobin used several names - Principal Player, Acrobat, Monty Cantsin and Karen Eliot. The Principal Player was the first born and performed many actions – publicly and privately – in Dundee. These actions invariably examined the ordinariness of everyday activities – politics – improvisation and experimentation. Actions were scripted so that anyone could act out the role of the Principal Player. Scripts were sent through the post to correspondents and put up in Willie Frew’s pub on the Hawkhill.]

Shown above are 3 of the scripts the intro caption refers to.
These were put up on display in Willie Frew's for all to read - or in the case of the top example - scribble over!
Below is a recording Pete made when in Principal Player mode.
It was done at 3.00 a.m in the DATA Attic, using tape machines, a radio and various timpani.
It's called "Star Chant" and he adopts a Robert Wyatt style of vocal on this one while the wheezing, whirring and purring melodious machinery sets the hypnotic ambiance!

Courtesy of The Attic Archive

PETE HOROBIN AND VAP - LATE 70'S

[THE ACCESSIBILITY OF THE ART OBJECT
1977 - punk exploded in the Scottish cultural landscape Pete Horobin and Harry Nelson hitch-hiked to France. While they travelled - by erratic stops and starts - southwards - they sang those classic lyrics made popular by Plastique Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi. The Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway. Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner. This emotional energy seemed to make everything possible – even hitch-hiking through France!
St Tropez - while lying half-asleep Horobin glanced across a space of a few metres towards a line of nubile – honey-coloured - female bodies - petite triangles covering their sex - nipples erect on pert breasts – oh so inspirational in that moment that he thought he should begin putting his art into a common space where it would have to fend for itself - instead of continuing to place it in the protected environment of a gallery. It is unlikely that naked female breasts alone nourished this epiphany so we have to consider other possible sources of inspiration such as – the very precariousness of hitch-hiking itself and the close proximity of Fluxus artist Ben Vautier in Nice - implying a viral attack.
Whatever – the virus was carried back to Dundee where Horobin began to mass-produce hundreds of small collages. Two hundred of these were distributed to people by a random process which combined an invented code imposed on the local telephone directory. It was extremely unlikely that any of the originals would survive - if any did Horobin reckoned they deserved to become works of art - therefore his criterion for establishing what might be termed a work of art was based upon that item's survival.
Horobin’s tireless activities attracted the attention of two Edinburgh-based artists – Tom Wilson and Dick Ross – who suggested he join them to form Visual Arts Promotions (VAP). The combined energies of Ross & Horobin were formidable – the public’s opinions on Scottish art were recorded in the street – art had to become more socially interactive or die! Products – comics and badges, postcards and books - were packaged like ubiquitous commodities and sold cheaply in commercial galleries.
The complete documentation of The Accessibility of the Art Object and Visual Arts Promotions is archived in the National Library of Scotland and is publicly available by arrangement.]

Some examples of VAP/Pete Horobin product above...
1st - Badge collage.
2nd - Collage drawing.
3rd - Envelope collages.
4th - Page from collage book.
5th - Postcard collages.

Courtesy of The Attic Archive.

JUNK INTO ART - ART INTO JUNK - 70's

[Sometimes it is almost impossible to say - or to remember - from where exactly an idea originates. Is it, for example, associated with a dream in the depths of the sub-conscious or closer to the surface of one’s awareness? Whichever, Pete Horobin awoke with the concept of amassing a vast quantity of junk material and inviting a number of artists to work with this pile of waste turning it into art objects over a period of time before returning everything back to source. A cyclical process - a life cycle of sorts - a metaphor for the perpetual never ending continuum of creativity.
Horobin at this time - 1978 - was a member of the Dundee Group (Artists) Ltd based at Forebank Studios - an extant Catholic primary school. The Dundee Group was established in 1975 by a small collective of Duncan of Jordanstone graduates - Bob McGilvray, Jack Morrocco, Barry Mitchell, Peter Gibb and Pete Horobin. The group recruited new members and attracted the financial support of the Scottish Arts Council. By the time Horobin proposed his idea of transforming waste materials the group comprised around 15 members - not all of whom had sympathies with the project’s aspiration. However the project had already been endorsed by Cairn – an artist-run collective in Paris - who were interested in participating in the recycling process and exhibiting the documentation in their gallery. Unlike DGA, Cairn was self-financed and autonomous and comprised creative people from all disciplines, not just the visual arts.
The collected waste materials came from Dundee industries and domestic sources and was deconstructed over a two-week period in April 1979 by those who accepted an invitation to participate - they included Arthur Watson, David Mach, John Macallum, Phil Barker, Andy Stenhouse and Frances Pelly. Dominique Haneuse and Bernard Crespin came over from Paris as guests of Pete Horobin.
The event, unlike other exhibitions at Forebank, was not a commercial venture. No artworks were for sale - instead they were further deconstructed as waste in a radical anti-art statement, which was ground-breaking in Scotland. For the first time the complete creative process - which always includes destruction - was conspicuously demonstrated publicly – not behind the closed doors of the artist’s studio – and spectators were forced to consider the transience of the art object as well as its cultural worth when fabricated from waste materials.
The documentation of the event was later installed in Cairn’s gallery where all the photographs and associated texts were laid on the floor and covered with a layer of clear industrial polythene so that viewers had to walk over the data to examine it in detail. This had the effect of demonstrating the ephemeral nature of waste materials and the non-commercial value of the documentation itself. The documentation had taken on a life and identity of its own quite separate from the event that it recorded and historicised. Now condensed within a small box made from recycled cardboard and relocated at Dundee University Archives it forms an intimate installation that can be explored on a tabletop or exploded to fill a gallery.]

Photos featuring some of the works and artists involved...
1st & 2nd - Installed photographs by Dominique Haneuse.
3rd - Arthur Watson at work.
4th - The Cairn installation.
5th - Phil Barker at work.
6th - The Warrior by Andy Lang.
7th - Welded steel & jute by John McCallum.
8th - Work by David Mach.

Courtesy of The Attic Archive.

PETE HOROBIN - ACROBAT - 1982

[The Acrobat walked a tightrope between reality and non-reality - he worked/did not work – had money/no money - dressed in red on grey – red for anarchy/grey for bureaucracy. The life of Acrobat was brief – months rather than years – and is marked by his passport which acts as a record of his performances which he called Modi – Modus Peregrinus, Modus Bureaucraticus, Modus Anniversarius. He was born in Dundee and died in Kassel in Germany where his final Modus took place.
Modus Bureaucraticus was installed as part of The Nuclear Issue – an exhibition in McManus Galleries, Dundee from September to October 1982. Acrobat’s contribution to the theme was in two parts – the first being a wall-mounted A4 poster – Conversations With A Bear – beside a small black & white tv monitor which either broadcast what was happening in The Bureau or a static image of a teddy bear. There was no soundtrack – a sense of secrecy prevailed. The only way to know what went on in The Bureau was to fill in an appointment card to attend a video recorded interview on the Nuclear Issue. The second part, therefore, occurred behind closed doors. The parallel with the type of state bureaucracies that perpetuated the Cold War was obvious.
The entire documentation of Acrobat - including his passport, briefcase, clothes and Doc Martens - is now archived in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.]

3 of the items referred to in the Acrobat lowdown are displayed above.

In the case of the passport - Pete did go through the proper legal process to successfully (and fraudulently) get his Acrobat passport.

His occupation was artist, of course, but somehow he managed to somersault his way through "the system"!

And those of you who can read semaphore will be able to read what he's spelling out.

You can hear the man himself on this recording below, which he made during his Acrobat period in 1982. A wicked piece of sinister post punk circus music that is as unsettling as it is wondrous!

Courtesy of The Attic Archive.

DATA FROM THE ATTIC ARCHIVE

A combination of packaging & politics from Pete Horobin's collection of work.

1st sachet contains a poster, ticket & badge from The Clash gig at the Caird Hall which took place on 18th January 1980.

There is also an additional sachet within!

2nd sachet has supermarket items with some literature at the back on the subject of trainee employment. Dated 7th March 1980.

3rd sachet has a Betty White bag, sums calculus and Conoco logo. Dated 8th March 1980.

4th item reveals a visit to the dentist on 25th August 1980 with C. Rimmer in the Nethergate.

Or does it expose a con man?!

5th item is a photo of the Bell Street car park which was built on top of a graveyard. Dated 31st August 1980.

6th item is an arty postcard stamped "Without the financial assistance of the Scottish Arts Council".

Courtesy of The Attic Archive.

THE ATTIC ARCHIVE

It's time to take a delve into The Attic Archive and display some of the material that has been stashed away for 3 decades.

The Attic Archive in Union Street, closed down last year, the contents of which have since been distributed far & wide.

This was a space where lots of artwork was produced and stored, but a place that was visited by a select few.

It was the brainchild of artist, Pete Horobin, and it is mostly his work that will be showcased on Retro Dundee, including photos, art, ephemera, literature & recordings.

To give you a more detailed overview of The Attic Archive and Pete Horobins DATA project, here below is a more authoritative introduction...

[When Pete Horobin graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone college of Art in 1975 he began the habit of collecting daily ephemera and sealing it in cardboard boxes. These little time capsules led to a compulsive documentation which was to expand over the course of the ensuing 40 years.
Two seminal and influential projects – The Accessibility of the Art Object (1978) and Junk Into Art/Art Into Junk (1979) – prepared the ground for a more sustained and obsessive ten-year documentation called DATA – Daily Action Time Archive - which began precisely on 01.01.1980 and concluded just as precisely on 31.12.1989. DATA was intended to be an extremely detailed self-portrait of an ordinary working-class artist living within a very particular moment in time within a British welfare state culture. Horobin gave everything that he produced and amassed, equal status, which is to say that complex artworks were equal to little pieces of ephemera – everything was data. And this data could provide the components for more artworks and collaborations with other artists. DATA was self-published and freely distributed globally through the Mail Art Network. Parts of the DATA project are now archived in Dundee University, Dundee Central Library, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and Artpool in Budapest which holds the greater percentage.
The creative life of Pete Horobin terminated with the precise conclusion of DATA and the activities of the DATA Attic - as an open space for artists to visit and correspond - closed down. The Attic continued to be a repository for Horobin’s output, and over the course of the following 15 years was occupied by various sympathetic art students. It was administered by Marshall Anderson, a freelance arts journalist, whose own journals and drawings were added to the archive. Anderson’s role concluded at the end of the 20thC and was taken on by Peter Haining whose activities as a researcher and artist were focused in Ireland where he made an audit of autodidactic self-expression and folk art. In 2005 Haining assumed responsibility for The Attic Archive and began to self-publish a series of DVDs & CDs, the contents of which deployed the considerable material within the archive.
Since the end of 2010 The Attic Archive has ceased to exist. Its many varied parts are now relocated in numerous museums and collections as follows –
The Museum of Childhood, Edinburgh.
The Museum of Communications, Burntisland, Fife.
Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery, Fife.
McManus Museum & Art Gallery, Dundee.
Central Library, Dundee.
Dundee University Archives.
Artpool, Budapest.
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.
The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
The National Irish Visual Art Library, Dublin.]

Courtesy of The Attic Archive.

BOO-HOORAY - G.I.G.O McGURK - 1984

Boo Hooray have made a couple of appearances on Retro already, those tracks having been taken from the early 80's Dundee Compilation Cassette, a local unofficial homemade product.

This record here however, called "G.I.G.O McGurk", was the bands official release, recorded at Wilf Smarties studio in Edinburgh and brought out as a 12 inch single in 1984.
Boo Hooray didn't exactly pander to pop chart formulas mind you, so this is probably the band at their most commercial.
Line-up on this recording were - Gerry Mitchell, bass + talk - Alison Mitchell, singing - Scott Gowans, guitars - Brem, sax - and the drums were of the programmed variety.
Quite an offbeat mixture stirring around in the blender - Magic Band style guitar - Manhattan Transfer sounding harmonies and Byrne "Once In A Lifetime" fashion talkover.
A captivating little cocktail!!
Boo Hooray were also collaborators on a variety of projects that became part of Dundee's Attic Archive. Included in the Archive are Boo Hooray live recordings, Erasmic Superfoam audios and various Mike Kane related artifacts, all of which have recently been passed on to the Dundee Central Library Social History Dept.
In fact, this record came courtesy of the Attic Archive, more of which will be dipped into over the next few days.