Exhibiting artists: Vito Acconci, Carl Andre, Anna Barham, Matthew Brannon, Henri Chopin, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Alasdair Gray, Philip Guston, David Hockney, Karl Holmqvist, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Janice Kerbel, Christopher Knowles, Ferdinand Kriwet,Liliane Lijn, Robert Smithson, Frances Stark and Sue Tompkins.
Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. takes an expansive look at text-based art practices, inspired by the concrete poetry movement of the 60s which explored both the literary and graphic potential of language.
The Scottish artist and writer Ian Hamilton Finlay was an important promoter of concrete poetry in Britain, and our exhibition takes its title from the periodical that he ran from 1962 to 1968. Other figures here linked with concrete poetry include Henri Chopin, Liliane Lijn, Dom Sylvester Houédard and Ferdinand Kriwet.
Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. allows the viewer to look afresh at a range of other text-based practices that originated in the 60s and 70s. Robert Smithson and Carl Andre are best known for their contributions to minimalist sculpture, and Vito Acconci for his performance work, but here they are represented by poetic and expressive works on paper. The exhibition also includes poems illuminated by Philip Guston and Alasdair Gray, typewriter works by outsider artist Christopher Knowles and a set of etchings by David Hockney inspired by Greek poet CP Cavafy.
Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. concludes with the work of a number of younger artists. Sue Tompkins, Janice Kerbel and Anna Barham are all represented by text-based pieces, including a film by Barham in which letters are assembled and disassembled by hand. Other artists explore the combination of text and image, including Matthew Brannon and Frances Stark, while Karl Holmqvist is represented by a wall of xeroxed poems and images from his Oneloveworld book. galleries: free: Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. is curated by Mark Sladen, ICA director of exhibitions. It is accompanied by issue two of Roland, the magazine of the ICA's visual art programme.
Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. features a number of special events including gallery talks and a night of experimental poetry. The second issue of Roland magazine is also now available in the gallery and online with a guide to the exhibition, essays and more. On this website you can find also guide a guide to the artists in P.O.T.H., a gallery of images from the exhibition and an annotated guide to further resources and websites.
Visceral. Immersive. Falling inside the words. Looking for words inside words. circular words.
To know it is to cut it (or similar - need to check this on return visit)
The typewritten witness report of a shooting written in vertical jangled innocence until it messes itself in confession then returns to vertical re-attempt to make a steady story.
Upstairs:
Hockney's articulation of gay coupledom told through images. Posters being what they said - magnificent feats.
Performance poetry using voice to lay bare contemporary song lyrics - Grace Jones 'Capital Cannibal'.
Another typewritten text that made you feel your way inside to find its sense - literally going inside the story.
A picture made from a piece of Samuel Beckett writing about 'the soil of my father and my mother and my father's father and my mother's mother and my father's mother and my mother's father ...'
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