History is memory tested and imaginatively engaged. History means making the past work, in the present and for the future. Monuments, like history, ideally connect the past to the future through present engagement and hortative content...Memory cannot be debated; history can. Make history, not memory.

Daniel Abramson

simon martin - carlton 2006

brasilia - shenzhen - milton keynes - chandigarh

If one is to understand the subject as constituted by its historical development, and history has traditionally been geographically specific, then migration must lead to psychic dislocation. If the globalised market economy does leave one without a ‘sense of place’ and the historical subject is a composite of its cultural history, then how can any ‘sense of place’ be achieved in a brand new, constantly changing city with few cultural artifacts and history?

apg - artist placement group

The idea of Artist Placement stemmed from a group of UK artists, and was guided by John Latham and initiated by Barbara Steveni, who were experimenting with radical new forms of art. Directed by Steveni, the APG pioneered the concept of art in the social context. From the outset their notion of ‘placement’ acknowledged the marginalised position of the artist and sought to improve the situation. By enabling artists to engage actively in non-art environments, the APG shifted the function of art towards ‘decision-making’.