what we have done, what we are about to do

30
This exhibition begins with the early days of Third Eye Centre in Glasgow and the years of preparation leading to its opening. Drawing on material from an ongoing AHRC research project – The Glasgow Miracle: materials towards alternative histories – we are presenting neither a history nor a complete index of the materials needed to write one. Instead, the exhibition presents some of the raw materials that comprise the archive, unedited, often unidentified, and still in the process of being investigated. In addition, Glasgow-based artists Rebecca Wilcox and Oliver Pitt, two of the organisers of the successful Prawn’s Pee project during Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012, have invited a series of artists, writers, musicians and curators to create new work for the space. With access to all available material – from both Third Eye Centre and CCA archives – they have had an open brief to respond as they want to the project or to the more general concept of the archival process and its assumed relevance and authority. Rather than a static series of exhibits, Wilcox and Pitt have encouraged a series of responses that will continue to appear as the exhibition progresses. The title of the exhibition is taken from a broadsheet published by Third Eye Centre to announce the opening of its new building on Sauchiehall Street in May 1975. It was clear that Tom McGrath, the first director of the new centre, had already achieved a great deal working from the Scottish Arts Council Gallery in Blythswood Square and he offers a summary of that first programme: Over the past two years we have run a series of events in different venues in Glasgow ranging from the big concerts – Mahavishnu, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington – to the series of international Poetry Readings (Allan Ginsberg, Adrian Mitchell, Earl Birnie, Mike Horovitz) and the Cantilena Baroque music recitals at Blythswood Square. We have run theatre (The Cage, The People Show, Cricot theatre group from Poland) and films (Art in Revolution, Odile Redon) and our Blythswood premises had a series of folk nights, organised by the Tradition Folk Club, featuring major artists in that field (Boys of the Lough, Martin Carthy, Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger). At the other musical extreme, we presented programmes by Morton Feldman, Steve Lacey, Derek Bailey, Ray Russell and the Sonic Arts Union. The performance artists Roland Miller and Shirley Cameron also visited Blythswood Square and artist Mark Boyle was resident there while his exhibition was showing at the Kelvin Hall. The Blythswood Square premises also provided rehearsal space and a meeting room and photo-copying facilities for many different groups in the city. And the place and its staff acted as an information centre for the arts. Video and sound-recording equipment was made available to artists and community groups working in the Glasgow area. McGrath’s final comment in that account mentions video and sound-recording equipment and this was to be of vital importance. He had bought a video camera in March 1973 after a visit to the Rotterdam Arts Foundation. After his return to Scotland he wrote to the Foundation’s director, Felix Valk, saying of his visit ‘I learned a tremendous amount from it all, and will probably be taking over some of your ideas in total... I am getting a basic video unit within the next two weeks and will be able to make and play back ½” black and white material.’ He acknowledges the novelty of the medium in Scotland while foreseeing the likely developments the camera will bring, ‘Will you be interested in tapes exchange once we get things going here? It really is a completely new field here, and none of the artists have used video before, so it will probably take some time before we start producing our own art video, but we should soon be able to produce video records of poetry readings, art events and the like...’ That documentation began almost immediately. Some of the earliest tapes show McGrath filming his family, who at this time were still living in Inverallochy, and there are many fragmentary and historically valuable glimpses of life in the Blythswood Square offices as everyone tries to get to grips with the new camera. There quickly follows a torrent of recordings documenting the programme outlined above in the broadsheet. Poets and musicians such as Allen Ginsberg, Adrian Mitchell, Mike Horovitz, Ted Berrigan, Julius Eastman and the Brotherhood of Breath have all survived on tape, as well as a tantalising twenty minutes of Tadeusz Kantor’s Cricot 2 Theatre Group in what must have been one of the earliest performances in the Old Fruitmarket. As McGrath predicted, these tapes were primarily documentation of performances but they gave him currency with which to swap and deal in the emerging world of video art. In exchange for copies of these performances, he was able to access tapes from the Netherlands, Germany and the USA. His contacts in London, of course, also played a vital role. John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins, a photographer who had become heavily involved in video with Sue Hall, suggested a consultancy on video and its distribution:

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Exhibition information about the exhibition What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do. at the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, from 18 August - 15 September 2012.

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Page 1: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

This exhibition begins with the early days of Third Eye Centre in Glasgow and the years of preparation leading to its opening. Drawing on material from an ongoing AHRC research project – The Glasgow Miracle: materials towards alternative histories – we are presenting neither a history nor a complete index of the materials needed to write one. Instead, the exhibition presents some of the raw materials that comprise the archive, unedited, often unidentified, and still in the process of being investigated. In addition, Glasgow-based artists Rebecca Wilcox and Oliver Pitt, two of the organisers of the successful Prawn’s Pee project during Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012, have invited a series of artists, writers, musicians and curators to create new work for the space. With access to all available material – from both Third Eye Centre and CCA archives – they have had an open brief to respond as they want to the project or to the more general concept of the archival process and its assumed relevance and authority. Rather than a static series of exhibits, Wilcox and Pitt have encouraged a series of responses that will continue to appear as the exhibition progresses.

The title of the exhibition is taken from a broadsheet published by Third Eye Centre to announce the opening of its new building on Sauchiehall Street in May 1975. It was clear that Tom McGrath, the first director of the new centre, had already achieved a great deal working from the Scottish Arts Council Gallery in Blythswood Square and he offers a summary of that first programme:

Over the past two years we have run a series of events in different venues in Glasgow ranging from the big concerts – Mahavishnu, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington – to the series of international Poetry Readings (Allan Ginsberg, Adrian Mitchell, Earl Birnie, Mike Horovitz) and the Cantilena Baroque music recitals at Blythswood Square. We have run theatre (The Cage, The People Show, Cricot theatre group from Poland) and films (Art in Revolution, Odile Redon) and our Blythswood premises had a series of folk nights, organised by the Tradition Folk Club, featuring major artists in that field (Boys of the Lough, Martin Carthy, Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger). At the other musical extreme, we presented programmes by Morton Feldman, Steve Lacey, Derek Bailey, Ray Russell and the Sonic Arts Union. The performance artists Roland Miller and Shirley Cameron also visited Blythswood Square and artist Mark Boyle was resident there while his exhibition was showing at the Kelvin Hall. The Blythswood Square premises also provided rehearsal space and a meeting room and photo-copying facilities for many different groups in the city. And the place and its staff acted as an information centre for the arts. Video and sound-recording equipment was made available to artists and community groups working in the Glasgow area.

McGrath’s final comment in that account mentions video and sound-recording equipment and this was to be of vital importance. He had bought a video camera in March 1973 after a visit to the Rotterdam Arts Foundation. After his return to Scotland he wrote to the Foundation’s director, Felix Valk, saying of his visit ‘I learned a tremendous amount from it all, and will probably be taking over some of your ideas in total... I am getting a basic video unit within the next two weeks and will be able to make and play back ½” black and white material.’

He acknowledges the novelty of the medium in Scotland while foreseeing the likely developments the camera will bring, ‘Will you be interested in tapes exchange once we get things going here? It really is a completely new field here, and none of the artists have used video before, so it will probably take some time before we start producing our own art video, but we should soon be able to produce video records of poetry readings, art events and the like...’

That documentation began almost immediately. Some of the earliest tapes show McGrath filming his family, who at this time were still living in Inverallochy, and there are many fragmentary and historically valuable glimpses of life in the Blythswood Square offices as everyone tries to get to grips with the new camera. There quickly follows a torrent of recordings documenting the programme outlined above in the broadsheet. Poets and musicians such as Allen Ginsberg, Adrian Mitchell, Mike Horovitz, Ted Berrigan, Julius Eastman and the Brotherhood of Breath have all survived on tape, as well as a tantalising twenty minutes of Tadeusz Kantor’s Cricot 2 Theatre Group in what must have been one of the earliest performances in the Old Fruitmarket.

As McGrath predicted, these tapes were primarily documentation of performances but they gave him currency with which to swap and deal in the emerging world of video art. In exchange for copies of these performances, he was able to access tapes from the Netherlands, Germany and the USA. His contacts in London, of course, also played a vital role. John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins, a photographer who had become heavily involved in video with Sue Hall, suggested a consultancy on video and its distribution:

Page 2: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

Yeah we got some information and wd be pleased to lay it on you. Best face to face armed with info rather than by letter or phone. If you got bread we cd use it what about a return trip to nether Scotland and 1 days pay for yrs truly maybe incl overnite accom and everythingd be lovely.

As Third Eye Centre became increasingly involved in the medium, McGrath became more knowledgeable and at ease with the networks and structures it was engendering. The Centre also became known as an important platform for video art, so much so that by 1976 it was hosting an important exhibition entitled Video (Towards Defining an Aesthetic).

Third Eye Centre itself continued to focus on the documentary aspects of video. The videos on display in this exhibition are valuable documentation of performances from key figures in jazz and folk, sound poetry, performance and visual art. They also, however, document Glasgow at a time of great change in terms of city planning and they reflect the activist side of the Centre’s programme as well as the social life of the times.

These tapes are particularly important in how they manifest the various strands of thought that were woven together in the conception of a new ‘centre’ in the city. Third Eye Centre was given its name in tribute to the spiritual leader, Sri Chinmoy, whose followers at that time included Tom McGrath and his wife. From the perspective of the guru, the centre was a ‘divine enterprise’ and the vegetarian café, run by Maureen McGrath, was a means to provide clear practical goals for the centre’s team, bonding them through shared labour.

Equally, Tom McGrath was building on his experiences in London where he would have seen both Jim Hayne’s Covent Garden Arts Lab and the expanded programme of Better Books. His own editorship of International Times had demonstrated how a lively scene could quickly develop around an activated hub and his visit to Rotterdam Arts Foundation had confirmed that perception. Third Eye Centre, then, was a gathering point and focus for an emerging counterculture in Glasgow. As an ‘arts centre’ it was also exploring the possibilities of mixed media and the increasing overlap of art forms that had surfaced internationally in the sixties.

A third important strand of thought that contributed to McGrath’s conception of a ‘centre’ lies in the activities around Barlinnie Special Unit and the pioneering psychiatrist Maxwell Jones’ ideas on therapeutic communities. Within this context, McGrath and others were challenging the confines of art within the gallery and within a limited community of thought. This approach also acknowledged the rise of ‘community art’ in Britain and this is reflected in the documents that were created or collected as the formation of Third Eye Centre was being considered.

There remains much research to do around the tapes and their content. It is also clear that much of their value resides in their ability to stir the memories of audiences and participants in the events they record. To this end, we would encourage anyone who has any memories of Third Eye Centre, or who can help identify figures or flesh out our sparse information, to contact us or leave information with our staff.

The tapes have survived because they were gathered together by Jak Milroy at the close of Third Eye Centre and donated to the Scottish Screen Archive. Later they were placed in the care of Malcolm Dickson at Streetlevel Photoworks and were stored in the offices of Rewind in Dundee. AHRC funding for the ongoing research project at Glasgow School of Art and CCA (The Glasgow Miracle: materials towards alternative histories) provided the resources to digitise the videos. Investigation and research into various document archives is now revealing their context.

There is a simple list of titles beside each monitor in the exhibition giving minimal information on each tape. We have also produced an annotated list that gives more detail. As this is an ongoing process, research will continue to be published in various forms throughout the exhibition. Likewise, the works by contemporary artists will continue to evolve or come into the gallery throughout the same period. Because of the sheer quantity of information on the tapes, the vitrines and the contributing artists, we have decided to create separate documents for each component of the exhibition.

Page 3: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

Gallery One: Vitrines

Vitrine 1: Clockwise from centre pointLetter to Felix Valk from Tom McGrath regarding a research visit to Rotterdam Arts Foundation; March 1973 Operating from the Scottish Arts Council Gallery at Blythswood Square, the trip was made by McGrath in his role as director of a new arts centre for Glasgow during a period of development prior to the opening of Third Eye Centre in 1975.

Poster for a collaborative exhibition with the Scottish Film Council and the Scottish Arts Council; March 1976 The first of several projects organised jointly with the Scottish Film Council throughout the 1970s, Video (Towards Defining an aesthetic) featured the work of David Hall, Stuart Marshall, Roger Barnard, Steve Partridge and Christian Vogt. A corresponding one-day symposium organised by Tamara Krikorian took place at the Glasgow Film Theatre to discuss The Future of Video in Scotland.

Correspondence between Margaret Tait and Tom McGrath on a possible screening of her films; January – April 1974 McGrath’s reply to Tait explains with regret that a screening isn’t possible under the current gallery conditions, however a series of her films were eventually screened at Third Eye Centre in 1981.

Issue 15 of NuSpeak magazine launching Third Eye Centre; May 1975 NuSpeak was published by the Blythswood Square Glasgow office of the Scottish Arts Council from 1973-1975. Edited and with writing by Tom McGrath, it provided general coverage of arts in Glasgow.

Posters for events during the opening months of Third Eye Centre; July 1975 Alongside the inaugural Joan Eardly and John Byrne exhibitions, the opening months of Third Eye Centre featured gigs, theatre, talks and lunchtime readings by the poets Tom Leonard and Adrian Henri.

Photograph of the bookshop at Third Eye Centre by George Oliver; 1981 Initially a small sales counter providing original lines in postcards, books, posters, badges, records and art catalogues, the Third Eye Centre bookshop expanded to stock a wide range of books and journals including independent publishers Black Sparrow Press from the US and the Isle of Sky based Aquila Publishing Company.

The Apple Tree, A medieval Dutch play in a version by Edwin Morgan; August 1982 Number 10 of an edition of 25 numbered clothbound copies signed by the authors for the world premier performance of the translation by the Medieval Players.

Postcard from Edwin Morgan; May 1976 Featuring ‘Tiger’ by Sam Smith, with an annotation and reverse message from Edwin Morgan confirming his RSVP to Tom MacDonald exhibition preview.

Star Gate, Science Fiction Poems by Edwin Morgan; September 1979 Participating in readings, seminars, an exhibition of his ‘fibre pen poems’ and an evening of performance and music to celebrate his 60th birthday in 1980, the late Scottish Makar Edwin Morgan was a regular feature in the Third Eye Centre events programme.

Photograph of Henri Chopin performing at Sound & Syntax festival; May 1978 Avant-garde sound poet, curator and critic Henri Chopin performed at the Sound & Syntax poetry festival and exhibited original ‘typewriter poems’. Chopin returned to Third Eye Centre in 1984 to exhibit all 365 ‘typewriter poems’ from the Last Book of the Rich Alphabetical Hours for the first time.

Vitrine 2: Anti clockwise from centre pointPhotograph of children’s performer Mark Furneaux; December 1975 Mime artist, juggler and student of Jacques Lecoq, Mark Furneaux entertains children in the Third Eye Centre café. Events for children were frequent, including several visits by Gordon McCrae with his Amazing Mr Bones Travelling Puppet Theatre.

Think Charts and mind maps used in exhibition and planning policy, author unknown; c.1976

Brochure for avant-garde music programme at the Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Glasgow; August – December 1973 ‘A season of international avant-garde music’ featured performances by the Steve Lacy Quintet, the Ray Russell Quintet, Sonic Arts Union and The Instant Composers’ Pool.

Invitation to after party event at Blythswood Square with Stomu Yamash’ta and East Wind; June 1973 Japanese percussionist and composer Stomu Yamash’ta formed East Wind in 1973 and also included keyboardist Brian Gascoigne, guitarist Gary Boyle and bassist Hugh Hopper. Yamash’ta worked on the Red Buddha Theatre group with Peter Maxwell Jones who later performed at Third Eye Centre in 1978.

Page 4: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

Photograph of Tom McGrath at Sound & Syntax festival; May 1978 Publishing extensively as a poet and playwright, McGrath returned to Third Eye Centre after completing his Directorship in 1977 to perform alongside concrete and sound poets bp Nichol and Bernard Heiksieck.

Poster for Allen Ginsberg event at Blythswood Square; August 1973 American ‘beat poet’ and prominent counterculture figure Allen Ginsberg visited Glasgow in the summer of 1973 to perform poetry and music accompanied by two guitarists. He also gave a press conference at the Scottish Arts Council Glasgow gallery and thanked McGrath for his influence introducing his work to British publishers.

Issue of IT, International Times; July 1968 Tom McGrath had been involved in experimental publishing and writing from the early 1960s as an editor of Peace News and participant in the first International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall in 1965. He went on to co-found and edit the radical newspaper International Times in 1966.

Invitation to arts festival and exhibition of inmates at Barlinnie Prison Special Unit; September 1979 The first in what became an annual event at the Unit, the arts festival featured an exhibition of painting and sculptures by inmates, alongside readings by Edwin Morgan, music by Alan Cameron and a production of Krassivy (the John Maclean story) by Freddie Anderson, performed by the Easterhouse Theatre Company.

Letter from Jimmy Boyle to Tom McGrath; February 1976 Boyle and McGrath corresponded throughout the early 1970s on matters of their artistic practice and the organisation of an exhibition at Third Eye Centre of Boyle’s sculpture in 1976.

The Special Unit Barlinnie Prison, Its Evolution Through Its Art, exhibition catalogue; 1982 Established in 1973 to accommodate known violent prisoners, the Unit was a therapeutic community with inmates and staff sharing decision-making. This anthology of writing and artworks was compiled and edited by Chris Carrell, Joyce Laing and Alice Bain.

Letter to David Harding from Education Officer Linda Hasse; April 1977 Appointed the first ‘Town Artist’ of Glenrothes in 1968, David Harding created and facilitated public art throughout the town. The exhibition View From Glenrothes looked at life, environment and planning in a new town, focusing in particular upon the role that artists played within the community.

Photograph of David Harding with Peter Goldsmith at Glenrothes; 1977

Exhibition and Event guide; March 1977

Posters: Clockwise from leftCantilena, Recital; June 1974 Now an annual festival taking place on Isle of Islay, Cantilena was founded in 1970 by Adrian Shepherd MBE. A Baroque Ensemble composed of members of the Scottish National Orchestra, the group gave several recitals at the Scottish Arts Council Glasgow venue in Blythswood Square.

John Byrne, June 1975 Boy on Dog by John Byrne was one of the first of many gable end paintings made throughout Glasgow by artists in an initiative funded by the Scottish Arts Council and supported by Tom McGrath in the years before the opening of Third Eye Centre and this solo exhibition of Byrne’s work, the second exhibition to be staged in the gallery following the inaugural Joan Eardly show.

The Garnethill Exhibition; November 1976 Partly historical and partly based within the issues confronting the local Garnethill community during the 1970s, the exhibition was planned by residents of the area in conjunction with students from the Mackintosh School of Architecture.

The Special Unit, Barlinnie Prison: Its Evolution Through Its Art; November 1980 Seen by almost 10,000 visitors, the exhibition aimed to inform the public on the use of arts in penal reform and was organised in association with the Community of the Special Unit and Joyce Laing.

Sound & Syntax International Sound Poetry Festival; May 1978 Organised by Joan Hughson and Tom Leonard, the three day poetry festival and exhibition of visual poems provided an opportunity to experience some of the most influential sound poets from Europe and North America, including Edwin Morgan, who also designed this poster.

Items courtesy of the Third Eye Centre Archive and the George and Cordelia Oliver Archive at the Glasgow School of Art

Page 5: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

Gallery Three: Videos

Art, architecture and exhibitions

Tape 1 Boyd & Evans Artists Talk, June/July 1976 Duration: 32m 38s

Fionnula Boyd (B.1944) studied at Leeds University, and Leslie Evans (B.1945) at Leeds College of Art. They began working together in 1968. In order to disguise their individual ‘handwriting’ in these jointly produced paintings, Boyd and Evans used a spray-gun to deliver highly photo-realist images. They discuss content and image exhaustively before working on a canvas, and are united in their intellectual approach, which has an affinity with surrealism – the juxtaposition of unrelated images forging a new idea. They later introduced freer brushwork, which, through their drawings, has become so alike as to be indistinguishable.

Tape 2 Michael Craig-Martin, 1 Exhibition Installation, January 1977 Duration: 11m 42s

Michael Craig-Martin RA is a contemporary conceptual artist and painter. He is noted for his fostering of the Young British Artists, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual artwork, An Oak Tree. He is Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths. Jal Milroy recalls the flooding in the main gallery during the installation period of this exhibition. All attempts to stem the water failed until Milroy had the idea to adopt a strategy similar to one of the main pieces on display by Craig-Martin, in which four buckets are suspended on a floating base. Milroy placed a bucket on a platform that could be hoisted up into the ceiling where it collected the water and could later be lowered and emptied.

Tape 3Michael Craig Martin, 2Exhibition Installation, January 1977Duration: 32m 26s

Tape 4Michael Craig-Martin 3Exhibition Installation, January 1977Duration: 14m 08s

Tape 5Michael Craig-Martin, 4Exhibition Installation, January 1977Duration: 32m 00s

Tape 6Michael Craig-MartinArtists Talk, 28 January 1977Duration: 64m 3s

Page 6: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

Tape 13 Isobel Johnson interviews Rudi Fuchs 15 April 1979 Duration: 31m 27s

This interview was conducted by Isobel Johnson on the occasion of a 1979 Arts Council touring exhibition (curators were invited to select artists and given the opportunity to purchase work for the Arts Council collection). Rudi Fuchs, at the time the director of the Van Abbé museum in Eindhoven, was asked to provide a fresh insight into contemporary British art. In the exhibition, Languages, he presented work by Victor Burgin, Gerard Hemsworth, John Murphy, Gerard Newman, Bruce Robbins, John Stezaker, Stephan Willats and Art + Language.

Tape 14Glasgow School of ArtArchitecture project, date unknownDuration: 32m 26s

While it’s clear this is a project initiated by the Architecture Department in Glasgow School of Art, it remains to be researched. Architect Andy McMillan is instantly recognisable and the project takes place before the refectory extension was added to the Newbery Building (both now demolished).

Tape 15Glasgow School of ArtArchitecture project, date unknownDuration: 33m 04s

Tape 16Glasgow School of ArtArchitecture project, date unknownDuration: 15m 29s

Tape 17Glasgow School of ArtArchitecture project, date unknownDuration: 3m 37s

Tape 18 Glasgow School of ArtArchitecture project, date unknownDuration: 32m 26s

Tape 1912th July Orange Parade, Blythswood SquareAspects ’75, Jugoslav Exhibition, July 1976Duration: 20m 24s

Page 7: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

Tape 21Ronald Forbes 1Artist’s Talk, 31 October 1973 Duration: 28m 12s

Recalling the establishment of Third Eye Centre, Ronald Forbes writes: ‘It played an important part in my life, and I was involved from the time just prior to its creation… I moved to Glasgow from Edinburgh, where I had studied at the College of Art, after completing my post-graduate scholarship in 1969. Glasgow was a real desert in terms of the visual arts, and only had the recently opened Compass Gallery dealing with contemporary art. The Glasgow Group existed but its membership was established and it only provided an annual exhibition. I was the Founder Chairman of the Glasgow League of Artists in 1971, and this became quite an influential organisation for the decade or so of its existence. This group organised exhibitions internationally and created studio space in Glasgow for its membership.

‘Tom McGrath sought me out when he returned to Glasgow to take up his new Scottish Arts Council post. We always got on really well and remained good friends until the end of his life. In those early days we discussed aspirations and possibilities for Glasgow often and long. He arranged to come to my flat one night for such a session, but with the main purpose of seeking my opinion of the name suggested for the new centre he was establishing. The name had been suggested by, his then wife, Maureen’s guru (a sign of the times-this was the early 70’s!) - it was the Third Eye Centre. It sounded right.

‘Tom commissioned the late Jon Schorstein, filmmaker, to do a lengthy video interview/record of me working when I was the Leverhulme Senior Art Fellow at the University of Strathclyde in 1973.’

Tape 22Ronald Forbes 2Artist’s Talk, 31 October 1973Duration: 32m 42s

Forbes also describes the role Third Eye Centre played in the arts community at that time and its influence on his own work: ‘When I was a member of staff at GSA, from 78-82, teaching Steven Campbell, Adrian Wiesnewski and Ken Curry among others, Third Eye was a vital and influential gallery and meeting space.

‘In personal terms one exhibition had a life changing effect on me. The exhibition Who Chicago was shown at Third Eye and The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 1981. I was overwhelmed and found my family in terms of the vision that I shared with these artists, the Chicago Imagists. It was arranged that I meet Dennis Adrian, the Chicago critic and collector who selected the show, and he later, in Chicago, introduced me to a range of the best-known artists. I have been a frequent visitor to Chicago ever since, showing with the Zaks Gallery for well over a decade.’

Tape 57Gable End ProjectTV Film fragments BBC/STV, 1975 (?)Duration: 32m 57s

In 1975 the Scottish Arts Council, in collaboration with Tom McGrath, commissioned four gable end murals including one by John Byrne in Partick. This tape is typical of one aspect of video in Third Eye, in that various fragments and snatches of TV programmes appear or fill empty space on different reels.

Page 8: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

Music

Tape 22Unidentified BandsDiscussion on town planning in Macintosh barDate unknownDuration: 28m 53s

Tape 23Madeline Taylor Third Eye Centre, 20 March 1976Duration: 41m 24s

Madeline Taylor was a folk singer originally from Perth. In 1973 she briefly became a member of the band Silly Wizard and they recorded an album for Transatlantic Records. Taylor left the band the same year and the album was never released. She went on to have a solo career.

Tape 24Ron Geesin 1Third Eye Centre, 1 September 1979Duration: 28m 57s

Geesin is a musician and composer noted for the humour and eccentricity that characterises his work. He is best known for orchestrating Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother in 1970. Later, in the 1990s, he collaborated with artist Ian Breakwell.

Tape 25Ron Geesin 2Third Eye Centre, 1 September 1979Duration: 37m 16s

Tape 26Edgard Zaldua Recital, Third Eye Centre, 9 November 1975Duration: 42m 43s

The Columbian classical guitarist is best remembered for his album Guitarra - a classical guitar recital (1973).

Tape 27Kelvinators Playing at 5th Year Birthday for Third Eye Centre (?)Duration: 13m 20s

A Glasgow band that played many times at Third Eye Centre. Johnnie Miles and Dusty McSheffrey of the Kelvinators later joined a successful Irish country rock band called Rodeo.

Page 9: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

Tape 28Rab Noakes In Concert, Third Eye Centre, 22 January 1977 Duration: 64m 12s

A Scottish singer-songwriter whose songs have been covered by artists such as Lindisfarne and Barbara Dickson. Noakes also played on Gerry Rafferty’s first solo album and he was an early member of Stealer’s Wheel. Most recently he led the tribute concert for Gerry Rafferty in 2012’s Celtic Connections.

Tape 29Tom McGrath, Rollin’ Joe & The Jets, Cado BelleThird Eye Centre, Friday Night Rock Concert, 7 November 1975Duration: 27m 19s

Tom McGrath, the first director of Third Eye Centre, was also a respected piano player who loved jazz. He had a trio which included Nick Weston and George Lyle. Rollin Joe is a Glasgow musician with a deep love of ’50s rock and roll, with a style that pays homage to Jerry Lee Lewis. Cado Belle grew from an earlier band, Joe Cool, led by Stuart McKillop. With the addition of singer Maggie Reilly, the new group became Cado Belle and recorded one album in 1976.

Tape 30Hopper-Dean-Tippett-Gallivan QuartetThird Eye Centre, 11 June 1977Duration: 51m 26s

A super-group of experimental jazz musicians. Keith Tippett played on the first three King Crimson albums and formed several groups of his own that showcased the best young british jazz musicians of the time. Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper are probably most famous for being part of the band Soft Machine but also share Tippett’s incredible jazz pedigree. The drummer, Joe Gallivan, is American and in the 1960s played with the likes of Donald Byrd, Eric Dolphy, Robert Moog and Gil Evans.

Tape 34Folk sessionActing rehearsalsDuration: 22m 02s

The folk session cannot be identified but various people recall that every Saturday there were very lively folk sessions in the Third Eye Centre café, after the bars shut at lunchtime, until they reopened in the early evening.

Tape 36Amateur musical rehearsalDate unknown Duration: 33m 21s

Tape 37Julius Eastman 1Creative Associates Tour, February 1974Duration: 33m 01s

One of the most intriguing tapes. Regularly referred to in correspondence and Third Eye Centre broadsheets as ‘Morton Feldman’, the ensemble are actually led by Julius Eastman, a black, gay, minimalist composer who studied with Feldman and who led a European tour of Creative Associates in 1974. In the 1980s Eastman struggled with addiction which left him homeless and much of his work dispersed and lost. New York composer Mary Jane Leach, who has been gradually retrieving and assembling his remaining works, has pointed out that this recording may be the only existing footage of Eastman playing his own work.

Page 10: What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do

Tape 38Julius Eastman 2Creative Associates Tour, February 1974Duration: 33m 07s

Researching the Creative Associates European tour, Mary Jane Leach writes that: ‘The pieces on the program were probably “Paradigm” by Lukas Foss, “Algorithms I” by Lejaren Hiller, “Stay On It” by Julius Eastman, and “For Frank O’Hara” by Morton Feldman. Also, “Burdocks” by Christian Wolff, “Eleven Echoes of Autumn” by George Crumb, and “Largo” by Charles Ives may also have been on the program.

‘Also, that is Jan Williams playing the saw in the Foss.’

The musicians on the tour were: Eberhard Blum – flute, Amron Chodos – clarinet, Julius Eastman – piano/voice, David Gibson -– cello, Benjamin Hudson – violin, Ralph Jones – french horn, Dennis Kahle – percussion, and Jan Williams – percussion.

Tape 39Brotherhood of BreathMcLellan GalleriesDuration: 27m 38s

Tape 40Andy Low Project 1 (?)Blythswood Square, 1973 (?)Duration: 32m 47s

The band are playing in the Blythswood Square premises and there is a clear link to Sri Chinmoy as his picture is prominent at the beginning of the tape with a large devotional candle before it. The band are comprised of local Glasgow musicians but little is known of their work.

Tape 41Andy Low Project 1 (?)Blythswood Square, 1973 (?)Duration: 34m 15s

Tape 42Derek Bailey (1973?)Introductory Talk on Celtic ArtUnidentified Band RehearsalDuration: 24m 44s

One of the leading figures in the British improvised music scene, Bailey was also co-founder of the Incus record label with Evan Parker and a co-founder of the influential Musics magazine. His books, Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice (1980) was also very influential and in the second edition he distanced himself from the term ‘improvised’, replacing it with the idea of ‘non-idiomatic’ music as he felt improvisation had become a recognised genre.

Tape 43Hopper-Dean-Tippett-Gallivan Quartet(Alternative tape)Third Eye Centre, 11 June 1977Duration: 51m 26s

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Literary EventsTape 100Earle Birney 1 Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square, 7 November 1973 Duration: 33m 0s

This is the first of a series of poetry readings that took place in Blythswood Square in November 1973. The exact context of the readings is still obscure. Earle Birney, Chris Wallace Crabbe and Adrian Mitchell all read over the span of one week. That particular run also included the American poet, Jim Whyte, in a panel discussion on the subject of writing and writers in schools. It’s possible that the Arts Council initiative on writers in schools in Scotland was the impetus for this programme of readings.

Tape 101Earle Birney 2 Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square, 7 November 1973 Duration: 33m 10s

Earle Birney was a Canadian poet and novelist who founded the first creative writing programme in Canada. He was also an increasingly experimental writer from the 1960s onwards, exploring sound poetry, visual and found poems and recordings with a percussion ensemble.

Tape 102Jim White 1 Writers in Schools Discussion, Blythswood Square, 9 November 1973 Duration: 33m 0s

An American, James White taught as a poet in the schools on the Navajo Indian Reservation and in Minnesota public schools as part of a pilot program by COMPAS (Community Programs in the Arts & Sciences). In this panel discussion he talks about the value of writers placements in schools and the Minnesota project in particular. Molly LaBerge, writer and Project Director of the Minneapolis Poets in Schools scheme also describes the origins of the idea, assessing both its successes and failures.

Tape 103Jim White 2Writers in Schools Discussion, Blythswood Square, 9 November 1973Duration: 29m 48s

Tape 104Chris Wallace Crabbe 1 Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square, 10 November 1973Duration: 29m 04s

Born in Australia, Chris Wallace Crabbe is both a poet and a commentator on the visual arts, with a particular interest in artists books. He is a resolutely experimental writer, an editor of several anthologies and he is recognised for his shift from a more academic writing style to a register which expressed his ‘Oz-self’. He has remarked that ‘I saw that you could ‘bring it up rich’ by using the whole range of Austrenglish’

Tape 105

Chris Wallace Crabbe 2 Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square, 10 November 1973 Duration: 21m 01s

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Tape 106Adrian Mitchell 1Duration: 33m 10s

Adrian Mitchell was an English poet, a socialist and a vociferour pacifist – his reading of To Whom It May Concern (Tell Me Lies about Vietnam) was a highpoint of the International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall in 1965. Third Eye Centre director, Tom McGrath (who also read at that 1965 event), was a friend and had been staying in Mitchell’s North Wales cottage when he was contacted to come to London and edit International Times in 1966.

Tape 107Adrian Mitchell 2Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square, 13 November 1973Duration: 15m 39s

Tape 108Mike Horovitz 1 Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square, 20 November 1973Duration: 33m 19s

As a child, Mike Horovitz was one of a large Jewish family brought from Nazi Germany to England. As a student he founded New Departures, publishing William Burroughs and Samuel Beckett among others. Like McGrath, Ginsberg and Mitchell, he had performed in the 1965 Albert Hall poetry event and in 1969 he published Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain, an influential anthology of young British poets. Most recently he has founded the Poetry Olympics.

Tape 109Mike Horovitz 2Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square, 20 November 1973Duration: 33m 02s

Tape 110Mike Horowitz 3 Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square, 20 November 1973Cricot 2 Theatre Group, Tadeusz Kantor, 1973 (?)Duration: 32m 58s

Tape was scarce and often it’s clear that one event was taped over another older one. In this case the reel was used to capture the final section of Mike Horowitz’s reading and the previous recording was of Cricot 2 Theatre Group and Tadeusz Kantor, performing in the Old Fruitmarket. The Third Eye Centre archive includes a programme for a 1972 Cricot 2 performance of The Theatre of Death in the Edinburgh Festival. Cricot 2 returned the following year and the performance in Glasgow looks like it may be Lovelies and Dowdies (1973). A good twenty minutes of the performance still survives on this tape. There is a documentary of the Edinburgh appearance of Cricot 2 by Ken McMullen entitled Lovelies and Dowdies (1974) but it has not been possible to compare the two. The Third Eye Centre footage, though, is clearly less professional and the cameraman has difficulty coping with the ambient nature of the performance.

Tape 111Ted BerriganPoetry Reading, Blythswood Square,1973 (?)Duration: 31m 24s

An American poet, Berrigan was recognised as a key figure in the second generation of New York School. He was best known for his work, The Sonnets (1964), a contemporary reimagining of the potential of the sonnet form and for Bean Spasms (1967), a book co-written with Ron Padgett and determinedly opposed to traditional notions of ownership and authorship.

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Tape 112Glyn Hughes 1Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square,1973 (?)Duration: 32m 59s

A novelist and poet, Gyn Hughes was also described in his obituary in the Guardian as ‘northern working-class autodidact in spirit’. He also had a lifelong interest in organic gardening and nature. The same obituary states that ‘Equipped with a serious and gifted intelligence in the English tradition of nature writing, he invested every subject he chose with that aura, even when the setting was Greek politics under the Colonels – his second wife, Roya, was from Athens – or Blackpool’s transvestite demi-monde (in the books Fair Prospects and The Antique Collector respectively).

Tape 113Glynn Hughes 2Poetry Reading, Blythswood Square,1973 (?)Duration: 33m 07s

Tape 114Edwin MorganPoetry Reading, Third Eye Centre,18 May 1975Duration: 28m

The Glasgow poet Edwin Morgan was the city’s first poet laureate and Scotland’s first Scots Makar. In the 1960s Morgan became known internationally as a concrete poet, concrete poetry being a particularly visual genre often associated with the fluxus movement. His collection of concrete poems, Gnomes (1968) is a good example of such work. He also though, developed other forms such as ‘emergent’ and ‘instamatic’ poems. He translated the work of other concrete poets such as Haroldo de Campos and Eugen Gomringer; and, in 1968, published a key essay on the subject ‘Into The Constellations: Some Thoughts on the Origin and Nature of Concrete Poetry’. Beyond this performance at Third Eye Centre, he was also listed as a participant in the later Sound & Syntax festival at Third Eye Centre in 1978 and he designed the poster for that event.

Tape 115Cliff Hanley, Robin MunroPoetry Reading, Third Eye Centre,18 May 1975Duration: 27m 21s

More information is needed on Robin Munro – he was chosen by Tom McGrath as a young poet to read alongside Edwin Morgan and Sorley McLean – both heavyweights in Scottish poetry by 1975. Cliff Hanley, the writer and broadcaster, does not seem to have been scheduled to read at this event. However, in his introduction McGrath explains that Robin Munro has been delayed en route to the reading and so, perhaps, Hanley was invited to step in at that point.

Tape 116Sorley MacleanPoetry Reading, Third Eye Centre,18 May 1975Duration: 27m 58s

This is relatively early footage of McLean reading – in both English and Gaelic – and so it provides a valuable insight into what poems he combines for the reading and his lengthy preambles also contribute new material. The reading takes place against the backdrop of the first Third Eye Centre exhibition by Joan Eardley.

Tape 117Three Glasgow PoetsPoetry Reading, Third Eye Centre, 28 February 1976Duration: 63m 5s

The reading probably was organised in conjunction with Molindinar Press to launch their new publication, Three Glasgow Writers (Alex Hamilton, James Kelman and Tom Leonard).

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Tape 118Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978Jackson McLowBob CobbingA Short History of MarianismTom Leonard,Duration: 1h 4m

Sound & Syntax was an ambitious festival of sound poetry that included many of the key writers in that field. International in scope, it builds on the achievements in Glasgow of poets such as Edwin Morgan, Tom McGrath and Tom Leonard, while introducing the audience to a wider survey of experimental poetry.

Jackson McLow was an experimental poet, composer and performance artist who worked with chance operations and other non-intentional forms of composition. In 1969 he produced computer-assisted poetry for the Art and Technology Program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and he continued to work with voice and precorded tapes into the 1990s.

Tape 119Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978Bob CobbingFranz MonHenri ChopinUnknown GuitaristsDuration: 1h 3m

Bob Cobbing acted as MC for the festival as well as performing in it himself. His association with Tom McGrath went back to McGrath’s days in London where Cobbing managed Better Books, a bookshop that seemed to operate equally as a proto-arts lab throughout the 1960s.

Franz Mon (real name Franz Löffelholz) was part of the German concrete poetry movement.

Tape 120 Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978Henri ChopinDuration: 23m 36s

The French poet Henri Chopin worked across a diverse spectrum of electronic and print media, employing tape recorders and manipulated voices in his performances. He founded OU magazine and later Cinquieme Saison, both magazines notable for including recordings, texts, images, screenprints and multiples.

Tape 121Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978Bill BissettDuration: 33m 23s

A Canadian, Bissett is well known as a concrete and sound poet. His chants and barefoot dancing during performance as well as his range of reference, from the absurd to the transcendent, have helped others link him to the shamanistic tradition. He was also an avid publisher founding blew ointment magazine in 1963 and later blew ointment press.

Tape 122Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978bpNichol 1Duration: 13m 32s

Another well known Canadian concrete and sound poet, bpNichol established grOnk, an important concrete poetry magazine in 1967 with Bill Bissett, David UU and others. The author Michael Ondaatje made a short film around bpNichol’s early work entitled Sons of Captain Poetry (1970).

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Tape 123Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978bpNichol 2Duration: 19m 05s

Tape 124Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978Jerome RothenbergDuration: 36m 48s

A prodigious poet and translator (Celan, Gunter Grass, Schwitters, Lorca and more), Rothenberg began to push the boundaries of poetry in the fifties and sixties, moving to the Allegany Seneca Reservation in 1972 and developing what he termed ‘ethnopoetics’, an idea that encompassed poems, folk songs, visual and sound poems and texts for ritual ceremonies. He has also published many broadly inclusive anthologies describing them as “an assemblage or pulling together of poems & people & ideas about poetry (& much else) in the words of others and in [my] own words”.

Tape 125Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978Gerhard RuhmDuration: 49m 0s

The Viennese poet Gerhard Ruhm was one of the founders of the Wiener Gruppe of experimental poets in the 1950s. Their early manifestations of happenings and actions prefigured the Actionists. Ruhm has worked across the boundaries of the visual and linguistic in what he calls ‘inter-medial’ works

Tape 126Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978Jeremy AdlerSteve McCafferyDuration: 38m 31s

Jeremy Adler is a concrete poet and Professor of German at King’s College London. He has published a catalogue of visual poetry, Text als Figur (1990), with Ulrich Ernst and his PhD was on the chemistry of Goethe’s Elective Affinities.

Born in England, Steve McCaffery moved to Toronto in 1968 and became a member of the sound-poetry group, The Four Horsemen, with Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton and bpNichol. His essay, Sound Poetry - A Survey (1978) is available at Ubu.com.

Tape 127Sound & Syntax: International Festival of Sound Poetry, 5 – 7 May 1978Bob CobbingDuration: 53m 15s

Cobbing was a concrete, sound and visual poet, a vital cornerstone of the literary counterculture in Britain and a pioneering and fearless publisher through the Writer’s Forum Press. In his obituary in the Guardian in 2002 his later work is described by Robert Sheppard in the following way:

‘As his texts became progressively freer, any mark - whether letter-shape, lip imprint, or inkblot - was readable as a sign on the page. Shape and texture suggested vocalisation and sound to Cobbing and the performers he increasingly worked with during the 1970s, such as musicians Paul Burwell and David Toop, and poets Paula Claire and Bill Griffiths.

‘Moaning, sighing, shouting, even sneezing, became as common as words or phonetics. In recent years, new collaborators became crucial to his work: the anarchic thrash noise ensemble of Bird Yak (Hugh Metcalfe on guitar and amplified gas mask, veteran improviser Lol Coxhill on saxophone, and his wife Jennifer, dancing); or the extraordinary series of 300 booklets written with Lawrence Upton, Domestic Ambient Noise, across which the two writers processed and re-arranged the other’s work.’

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Tape 137Chinua Achebe 1Writers Talk held at Glasgow University, 16 April 1975 Duration: 32m 06s

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist whose book, Things Fall Apart (1958), is a modern classic of African fiction and one of the most widely read books in contemporary African literature. 1975 was the year in which his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Contrad’s “Heart of Darkness” roused controversy for characterising Joseph Conrad as “a bloody racist.”

Tape 138Chinua Achebe 2, Writers Talk held at Glasgow University, 16 April 1975 Duration: 23m 45s

Tape 140Allen Ginsberg 1press conference/reading at Blythswood Square, 10 & 12 August 1973 Duration: 33m 08s

Allen Ginsberg was one of the original and most celebrated of the ‘beat poets’ in the 1950s, with his long poem Howl (1956) distilling the feelings of that generation. A friend of William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Jack Casady and Gregory Corso, his writing embraced the philosophy of ‘first thought, best thought’, and the long loose lines he favoured recalled the work of Walt Whitman. In the sixties he became a prominent figure in the counterculture and before his visit to Glasgow he had recorded an album with Bob Dylan. In the beginning of his reading here, he points out that Tom McGrath was a friend and also had been instrumental in introducing his work to British publishers.

Tape 141Allen Ginsberg 2Poetry Reading at Blythswood Square, 10 & 12 August 1973Duration: 33m 42s

Ginsberg read at the Scottish Arts Council building in Blythswood Square on 10 August 1973. He was accompanied by two guitarists; one can be identified as Allan Tall and the other is named Victor but as yet we have no surname. Allan Tall remembers how there was little real rehearsal – as Ginsberg comments in the performance, they all had only met an hour before it started.

Tape 142Allen Ginsberg 3Poetry Reading at Blythswood Square, 10 & 12 August 1973Duration: 33m 29s

Tape 143

Allen Ginsberg 4Poetry Reading at Blythswood Square, 10 & 12 August 1973Duration: 27m 23s

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Social Issues

Tape 7The Special Unit Video tour of exhibition, November/December 1980Duration: 57m 14s

Third Eye Centre had an ongoing interest in the special unit at Barlinnie Prison and organised several exhibitions based on the work being produced there in workshops. The Unit was set up in 1973 and the thinking behind it was influenced by Maxwell Jones’ concept of a therapeutic community. Art therapist, Joyce Laing, set up the first art workshops in the Unit working with prisoners such as Jimmy Boyle and Hugh Collins. Tom McGrath invited muralist Beth Shadur from Chicago to work there and she also appears in several of the tapes working alongside John Kraska on a childrens’ mural project.

Tape 8The Special Unit Alternate ‘Festive’ tour of exhibition, November/December 1980Duration: 29m 14s

Tape 9Conference in Barlinnie Special UnitDate unknown, no soundDuration: 63m 35s

The exact nature of this conference in The Unit is still unclear and the lack of sound is frustrating. Speakers on the panel include Joyce Laing and Richard Demarco though the others are yet to be identified.

Tape 10Maxwell Jones 1Third Eye Centre, 28 August 1976Duration: 32m 34s

Tom McGrath issued an invitation to this event stating: ‘The Seminar will begin with an introductory talk by the social ecologist Maxwell Jones, who will then act as facilitator. It is expected that he will outline his basic philosophy of learning by interaction, with particular refrence to therapeutic communities, schools and prisons.’

Tape 11

Maxwell Jones 2, Third Eye Centre, 28 August 1976Duration: 32m 22s

McGrath also gave a quick overview of Jones’ career and mentions the publication of a new book which may have sparked the seminar at a time when Third Eye Centre was already interested in the special unit at Barlinnie and working regularly with the art therapist Joyce Laing: ‘Maxwell Jones, who is now resident in Arizona, was instrumental in setting up the Henderson Hospital unit for character disorders at Dingleton Hospital, Melrose. During his 30 years work in developing social organisations he has issued a number of publications including Social Psychiatry in Action, and his most recent book – Maturation of the Therapeutic Community – has just been published.’

Tape 12Maxwell Jones 3, Third Eye Centre, 28 August 1976Duration: 18m 39s

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Tape 87Gospel MeetingDate and location unknownDuration: 33m 02s

Jak Milroy, cameraman and technician at Third Eye Centre recalls filming this, explaining that he would regularly film events of social interest around the city. On that basis it’s possible he also filmed the wedding (below) and the Orange March which precedes the tour of the Jugoslav exhibition in 1976.

Tape 90A WeddingDate and location unknownDuration: 33m 09s

Tape 92Belfast Children in GlasgowBlythswood Square, 4 July 1973Duration: 26m 28s

There is further material on this visit in the document archive but not yet analysed. It’s likely that the children from Belfast were taken on a trip to Glasgow as a respite from the troubles in 1973.

Tape 133Introduction to Fraud Fragmentted Documentary, date unknownDuration: 41m 01s

Tape 134Our Road from Past to Future Maryhill Week Parts 1 & 2, 1976 (?)Duration: 41m 0s

Like the material recorded for the Garnethill exhibition, this tape reflects the interest in Third Eye Centre around the city planning changes taking place in the mid 1970s. There is a consistent relationship with the nearby Architecture Department in the School of Art and an ongoing attempt to document the changing landscape and the populations reactions to it.

Tape 135Is There A Better Way?Priesthill Video Company, 1977 (?)Duration: 13m 49s

Built around vox pop interviews in the streets, the documentary looks at life in Priesthill in the late 1970s. It’s unclear yet what the context was for the making of the tape and its relationship to the Third Eye Centre programme.

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The Building

Tape 93Tom McGrath explores 350 Sauchiehall Street before purchase of property1973 (?)Duration: 30m 18s

It seems that this tape was made close to or just after the purchase of the building in Sauchiehall Street. Tom McGrath enters the building through what is now Hely’s Hairdressers and he talks of purchasing that site, although that never happened. The tape is of particular interest as he talks the viewer through the building in terms of how it could be used as an arts centre. There is also a brief shot of McGrath filming and his wife (who was carrying the camera battery) in a wall length mirror in the building.

Tape 95Construction of Third Eye Centre1974 (?)Duration: 14m 31s

The tape documents the building work and structural refurbishment of the Sauchiehall Street site before it opens. This process was also documented to some extent by the photographer George Oliver. Interestingly, that process is echoed in the archive through the construction photographs commissioned while CCA was being refurbished between 1999 and 2001.

Tape 96Blythswood Sqare Camera Tests 11973/1974 (?)Duration: 31m 16s

Tom McGrath ordered a video camera in March 1973 and it’s clear that several of the earliest tapes are rudimentary attempts at documenting life around the Scottish Arts Council building, his own family life and the preparation of a new building in Sauchiehall St which would become Third Eye Centre.

This particular tape consists of many short fragmentary tests that manage to capture a wide range of people working at Blythswood Square, the various visitors to the premises, daily work life in the office and occasional tests in a bar which might be in the North British Railway Hotel (now Millenium Hotel) in George Square. Among the items recorded are staff folding copies of NuSpeak, the Arts Council/Third Eye Centre broadsheet, John Kraska visiting to make a presentation to Tom McGrath during a power cut, Ian Black dropping off a batch of new film stock for the camera, Bill Forsyth, Elie ??? and...

Tape 97 Blythswood Sqare Camera Tests 21973/1974 (?)Duration: 7m 32s

In this and the following tape, Tom McGrath is teaching someone to use the camera in the Blythswood Square premises. The staff are assembled and sitting on the floor, patiently, while this lesson continues for some time. It does leave a valuable record of many of the people associated with Blythswood Square at that time, though most are still to be identified.

Tape 98 Blythswood Sqare Camera Tests 31974 (?)Duration: 25m 10s

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Performance

Tape 73Beyond the Typewriter “Threads” 27 February 1977Duration: 63m 21sYear: 1977

The tape label is the only existing clue to this footage so far. It looks like a script reading but this tape awaits further research to clarify the context.

Tape 74Beyond the Typewriter, “Threads” 27 February 1977Duration: 22m 55s

Tape 75Theatre of Mistakes 1Going, 1977 (?)Duration: 62m 55s

Anthony Howell, a dancer, poet and performance artist, founded The Theatre of Mistakes in 1974. It is now acknowledged as a pioneering group in the history of British performance art and Howells book, The Analysis of Performance Art: a guide to its theory and practice, is considered a key text in that field.

This work, Going, was first performed as an improvised piece entitled Homage to Pietro Longhi and it was shown during Michael Craig-Martin’s choice for the Serpentine Gallery in 1976. This may have had a bearing on the piece being shown in Third Eye Centre as Michael Craig-Martin’s exhibition there was held in January 1977.

Tape 76The Theatre of Mistakes 2Going, 1977 (?)Duration: 63m 33s

This footage has been shot from different angles, implying that the work was performed twice at Third Eye Centre.

On Anthony Howell’s archive website there is a description of the basic structuring device in the work:

The Structure of Going by The Theatre of Mistakes There are five acts in the play. Each of the five acts is a repetition of the first act, and each is instigated by a different performer. In each act a further element is introduced by the first performer to enter in that act. Each new element is repeated in all subsequent acts.

Tape 77Scottish Ballet Workshop, Third Eye 21 February 1979Duration: 52m 30s

Tape 78Unidentified Play Date unknownDuration: 30m 25s

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Tape 80Simone Forti and Peter Van Riper Big Room22 October 1977Duration: 53m 13s

A flyer for the event states that: ‘Simone Forti’s works have been among the most influential avant-garde dance pieces in the last twenty years and she is acclaimed as a pioneer in the use of natural movement… Peter Van Riper is involved with music, concep-tual performance, graphics, and laser holography. What unites his work is an attention to the direct experience of perception.‘In the work which they will bring to Europe, Peter Van Riper plays several instruments including B-flat soprano saxophone and e-flat sopranino saxophone, African mbira, and other ethnic instruments. Simone Fortis’ movement material is based on studies of the relationships between the structure of the body and the forces of gravity and momentum. These studies entail comparative observations of animal locomotion.’

Tape 81Playgroup discussionUnidentified Dance PerformanceDate unknownDuration: 17m 42s

Tape 82 Microcosm 124 February 1974 (?)Blythswood Square, 24 February 1974 (?)Duration: 33m 04s

There is little information on these performances except invoices, if the dates and location are correct.

Tape 83Microcosm 2Blythswood Square, 24 February 1974 (?)Duration: 26m 34s

Tape 84John Faichney (?)Wilkie TumblerDate unknownDuration: 17m 36s

This may be a performance by an American choreographer and performance artist, John Faichney. Faichney later joined the Centre for Experimental Art and Communication as publication curator and, from 1983 – 1990, he was the manager of The Arts Television Centre in Toronto.

Tape 85Mr Bones Puppet Show in Café1975Duration: 25m 38s

Gordon McCrae began the Mr Bones’ Travelling Puppet Show on Saltcoat’s beach in 1970. His puppetry was known for its robust attack on the audience’s attention and his obituary cites a Guardian review which notes that his show was ‘educationally indefensible... but a lot of fun’. In 2001 he published Not The Punch And Judy Show, an illustrated book on the Punch and Judy traditions in Britain.

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Tape 86Paula’s Puppets Third Eye Centre Café, 19 October 1976Duration: 25m 02s

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Spiritual

Tape 64Tai Chi DemonstrationSandy Cuthbert and Ian Cameron, 16 March 1977Duration: 30m 41s

Many contemporary Tai Chi practitioners list Cuthbert and Cameron as their teachers so they appear to have been very influential in their field. Both had extensive training. The poet Linda Chase mentions them both on her website saying ‘My Tai Chi training began in Edinburgh in 1974 with Sandy Cuthbert, an architect who had been living in Arizona and had learned Yang Style Tai Chi from a man who had learned it in San Francisco from a Chinese master in a park. That was the story. I studied with Sandy for five years and when he left for Hong Kong, I worked with several other Yang style teachers and also with Ian Cameron from Wu style.’

Ian Cameron continues to teach in Edinburgh today.

Tape 65Tai Chi DemonstrationSandy Cuthbert and Ian Cameron, 1977Duration: 4m 11s

Tape 66Tai Chi DemonstrationSandy Cuthbert and Ian Cameron, 1977Duration: 32m 05s

Tape 67Sri ChinmoyVisit to Blythswood Square (1973?)Performance of Sri Chinmoy’s God PlayDuration: 33m 03s

Sri Chinmoy, a Bengali and American spiritual teacher, advocated meditation, chanting mantras and prayers, performing dedicated service to God as a way to personal enlightenment. He had many followers in Scotland and on the international stage. His disciples included John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana. McLaughlin knew Tom McGrath and their shared interest in both Sri Chinmoy and jazz would have inspired not just the concept of Third Eye Centre but the programming of Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Duke Ellington in the run up to the opening of the arts centre.

In this tape he makes a visit to Blythswood Square and watches a performance of his God play with Tom McGrath playing the role of God.

Tape 68Sri Chinmoy Third Eye Centre, 1975 (?)Duration: 63m 43s

Sri Chinmoy has an interesting role in the foundation of Third Eye Centre, recommending the centre to Tom McGrath as a ‘divine enterprise’. He first suggested the name Beauty’s Delight for the centre and when the board baulked at this, he agreed to Tom McGrath’s suggestion of Third Eye Centre. He also encouraged McGrath’s wife to run the vegetarian café in the centre as he saw cafés as way of giving his followers a practical goal that would bring them together in hands-on activity.

Tapes 68 and 69 document a later visit to Glasgow, presumably giving his blessing to the new enterprise in Sauchiehall St. The event includes chanting and singing by his Glasgow followers as well as a public lecture by Sri Chinmoy in the main gallery.

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Tape 69Sri Chinmoy Third Eye Centre, 1975 (?)Duration: 31m 53s

Tape 70Tai Chi DemonstrationSandy Cuthbert and Ian Cameron, 1977Duration: 32m 28s

Tape 71Tae Kwan DoInterview, date unknownDuration: 28m 18s

Tape 72Tai Chi DemonstrationDate unknownDuration: 17m 53s

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Communities

Tape 43Arran InterviewsMontrose House, Jimmy Kelso, 1979Duration: 32m 09s

In a document summarising the coming year’s activities Tom McGrath writes that ‘Third Eye’s community efforts in 1977-78 will concentrate on specific projects in the Glasgow area and a year-long art experiment involving artists and community on the Isle of Arran.’ These films are probably the outcome of that statement though the original tapes were labelled ‘1979’.

The filmmaker here is Jak Milroy, one of the cameramen and technicians at Third Eye Centre during McGrath’s tenure. Milroy was from the Isle of Arran and even when working at Third Eye Centre he commuted back and forth to the island.

Tape 44Arran InterviewsNeil Clark, Blacksmith, 1979Duration: 31m 14s

Knowing the island well, Jak Milroy is able to hone in on the unique relationships and tensions that characterise the community. Recalling the interviews, he pointed to the varying accounts of how the roads on the island were built. Lady Jane Fforde describes how her family had the roads constructed and their positive impact on Arran. Neil Clark, described by Milroy as an old style 20s/30s socialist, recalls instead that the roads were built by labour exacted in payment of fines and back rents.

Tape 45Arran Interviews1979Duration: 19m 58s

Tape 46Arran Interviews Lady Jane Fforde, 1979Duration: 25m 32s

Tape 47Arran Interviews 1979Duration: 37m 59s

Tape 48Interviews, North of Scotland?Accordion Players/T McGrath, 1979Late night TV, 1979 (?)Duration: 33m 1s

This tape remains without context. Tom McGrath and his family were living in Inverallochy the north of Scotland just before he joined the Scottish Arts Council in Blythswood Square. When he bought the camera for the new centre in 1973, he practiced constantly by filming those around him, including his family. This tape may be similar, perhaps a visit to a nearby family in the north – although this is pure conjecture at this point.

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Tape 49Garnethill Mrs Gallagher, Hill St, 5 August 1976Duration: 32m 27s

The films made around Garnethill were instigated at the time of a show about the area, The Garnethill Exhibition, held in November 1976. The majority of the interviews were filmed by the American, Tom Busby, though the more architecturally oriented pieces may have been done by Glasgow School of Art’s Architecture Department.

Tape 50Garnethill Convent of Mercy, 7 September 1976Duration: 59m 06s

Some interviews, such as the nuns in the Convent of Mercy and Mrs Gallagher, were done in situ while others were conducted in a still unidentified room. It’s still unclear what the films were used for – there was a vox pop element to the exhibition where visitors could enter a specially built booth in the gallery and tape whatever they wanted to say. These surviving films do not seem to be from that source and whether they were ever shown in the exhibition or used around it in some way is still unknown.

Tape 51Garnethill Convent of Mercy, 7 September 1976Duration: 48m 35s

Tape 52Garnethill Tour 11976Duration: 61m 13s

Tape 53GarnethillVarious interviews, 9 September 1976Duration: 54m 15s

The location used for these interviews is the unidentified room mentioned above. It is always dark outside, though as it was November that could simply signal afternoon. The tape boxes for these interviews regularly describe the setting as the Macintosh Bar, though this seems unlikely. The setting is relatively domestic with curtains, a large round table, a standard lamp and an old clock.

Tape 54Garnethill Tour 21976Duration: 22m 09s

Tape 55Garnethill Kids MuralWorkshop, 16 October 1976 Duration: 32m 07s

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Tape 56GarnethillInterviews, 15 September 1976Duration: Duration: 33m 49s

The location of this tape and the following (Tape 57) is also unidentified. More clearly a lounge bar it still seems unlikely to be the Macintosh Bar.

Tape 57GarnethillInterviews, 15 September 1976Duration: Duration: 7m 45s

Tape 58Garnethill Kids MuralWorkshop, 16 October 1976 Duration: 32m 09s

Several people who have had a long and important association with Third Eye Centre can be identified in this tape. John Kraska, the artist who was working in the Sauchiehall Street building before it was purchased by the Arts Council, is one of the artists here leading the workshop. The murals project being explored here was later carried through by him. Beth Shadur, an American artist from Chicago, is also present. She was invited to Glasgow by Tom McGrath to work on artists’ workshops in Barlinnie Prison and she had an important role to play in the development of that work.

Tape 60Garnethill Interview Compilation1976Duration: 18m 45s

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Project GalleryGlasgow-based artists Rebecca Wilcox and Oliver Pitt, two of the organisers of the successful Prawn’s Pee project during Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012, have invited a series of artists, writers, musicians and curators to create new work for Gallery Two. With access to all available material – from both Third Eye Centre and CCA archives – they have had an open brief to respond as they want to the project or to the more general concept of the archival process. Rather than a static series of exhibits, Wilcox and Pitt have encouraged a series of responses that will continue to appear as the exhibition progresses.

Some of the work looks at the theme of non-representation in the archives, with an interest in how archives are the expression of work, both past and present (they only exist through it) and conversely, how this work may be absent from representation in the archive content.

The participants invited are: Sam Bellacosa, Amelia Bywater, Romany Dear, Dexter Sinister, Robert Hetherington, Momus, Mother Tongue, David Osbaldeston, Dominic Paterson, Radio Tuesday (with Marc Baines), Julia Scott, Laura Smith and Sarah Tripp.

Sam Bellacosa

‘For eighteen months, following the dissolution of the Third Eye Centre in 1991, prior to its rebirth as the CCA in 1992, the building was technically empty, but bodies moved in and out of it, through a side door on Scott Street. I have begun to collect a testimony of the so-called interim period, through the words of those persons who came through the side door. It is entirely possible that they played a few rounds of ping-pong with the others gathered here, but what was said and done beyond the ping-pong table remains to be discovered and archived. This is my contribution to the Third Eye Centre and CCA archives: an obscure story of human relations, creativity, money and the monikered Glasgow Miracle beholden to these efforts.’

Amelia Bywater

Amelia Bywater reflects on the potential of acknowledging and activating self archives through modifying her different outputs (object, text or otherwise) throughout the duration of the show. She’s archiving a process through editing, accumulation and subtraction, unearthing a multitude of paths that run between the works; between objects, narrative and their representation.

Rob Hetherington

‘The piece that I have produced has come about from ideas of the exterior/interior spaces of the mind, the internet and the archive, and the solidification of ideas within them. I have begun thinking about ideas of externalising and solidifying things from the interior and fluid world of the internet, and the possibility of re-internalising them into the more traditional, physical archive that makes up the context of the exhibition. This notion of an archival exhibition also leads to ideas of objectivity, the historic significance of both the art object and the written document (or perhaps we could say the art document and the written object) and the important connotations of the reverence with which we approach them both.’

Radio Tuesday

Radio Tuesday, an artist-run radio station based in Glasgow, facilitated the broadcasting and making of audio artworks. For this project they have commissioned a drawing depicting their first series of broadcasts in 1999. This graphic artwork is by Marc Baines. It is a tribute to the exhibition Waves in, particles out (CCA, 1999), an exhibition that featured a varied selection of artworks on a theme of sound.

Laura Smith

Compiled and produced in 2079, To arrive where we started is a collection of newly commissioned and existing works responding to the notion of an archive following the invention of time travel. Edited by Laura Smith and designed by Robert Chilton. It includes works by:

Maria Christoforidou, Beth Collar, Alun Evans, Gintaras Didžiapetris, Bryony Gillard, Duncan Lunan, Beth Emily Richards, Mark von Schlegell, Oliver Sutherland, Neal White, Thom Walker and Rebecca Wilcox

David Osbaldeston

‘The panels don’t address the archive in a direct way, they deal with the archive in a tangential way – in a way that addresses time and events within it from both an institutional level and a personal one; a way that addresses the viewer as being a witness to the archive or history of a place in the same way the institution attempts to be a witness of events within time through the accumulation of its activities.’

Dominic Paterson

‘In October of 1989 Derek Jarman created a four-day installation at Third Eye Centre as part of the National Review of Live Art. Little trace of this remains in the Third Eye Centre archive, and though some footage of the installation is included in a recent publication celebrating 30 years of the NRLA, perhaps the most vivid representation of Jarman’s visit to Glasgow is found in his published journal, Modern Nature. I’m interested in the personal act of archiving involved in Jarman’s publication of his diary entries, and in responding to the relative invisibility of his exhibition within the institutional history of Third Eye / CCA.’

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Romany Dear and Julia Scott

This work relates to self defence, Tai Chi and Simone Forti. All three subjects appear in the Third Eye film archive.

Momus

Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, addendaAudio file, 2012

Born in Paisley in 1960, Momus is a singer, writer and performance artist. Since he’s currently based in Japan, access to the CCA archives was a physical impossibility for him. Commissioned to make a piece related to the history of the CCA, Momus recalled that cult poet, singer and raconteur Ivor Cutler (whom Momus had met, shared a record label with, seen in concert, and been compared to) had released a spoken word album in 1978, Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 2, based on recordings of performances made at Third Eye Centre (the CCA’s former incarnation on Sauchiehall Street) between the 7th and 9th of July, 1977. Cutler’s tales construct a factitious autobiographical narrative based on the life of a wretchedly poor and stereotypically Scottish family during the Great Depression. In turn, Momus makes factitious versions of Cutler’s tales: false memories of false memories, as it were. The episodes range from half-baked vocal impersonations of Cutler to Aesop’s Fables-type animal stories told over digitally re-assembled tracks of Cutler himself playing the harmonium.

Sarah Tripp

You are of vital importance to the art community (2006 – 2007) Collage and ink jet print

This work is based on interviews conducted by Sarah Tripp in 2008 with thirteen artists living in Glasgow. The interviews concern the life and work of an artist/musician who moved to Glasgow in 2006 and was deported in 2007. Extracts from the transcripts of the interviews have been arranged and ordered to offer a point of view from which to consider the artist’s experiences, and to provide a context for a small geometric collage produced by the artist during a performance at CCA in 2007.

Thank you to Mhari McMullan and Jonathan Carr-Hopkins

Mother Tongue

‘The project’s response to the Third Eye Centre/CCA archive is a re-presentation of exhibition material and artworks from Maud Sulter and Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé, both active artists in Glasgow in the late 1980s / early 1990s. Our selection of their work from the archive is intended to highlight not only that their contribution has been omitted from the grand ‘Glasgow Miracle’ narrative, but most importantly, the whiteness of the ‘miracle’. An essay will be released mid-show investigating the socio-political conditions under which the ‘miracle’ formed, and the selected artists’ positions as a result.’

Mother Tongue is a research-led curatorial project between Tiffany Boyle and Jessica Carden. The project participated on the 2011/12 CuratorLab programme at Konstfack Stockholm. Both Tiffany and Jessica are doctoral candidates at the London Consortium and TrAIN: Transnational Research Centre for Art, Identity and Nation, London.

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