Show And Tell: A Chronicle Of Group Material

The first monograph on the New York based artists’ collaborative known for its socio-political art practice. Organised by former group members in keeping with the methods and aims Group Material employed, the book charts the origins, processes, developments, projects and contexts of the group’s activities, and draws heavily from Group Material’s archive, including original documents, photographs, drawings, correspondence, artefacts, anecdotal information and texts.

Group Material created 45 projects during its period of activities (1979–1996), each represented though installation photography and information from original proposals, exhibition statements, press releases, responses, etc. One emblematic exhibition project, AIDS Timeline, is examined in detail, from collected material and newly conducted interviews. Essays by Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, Sabrina Locks and Tim Rollins further illuminate the methods and principles of Group Material’s practice.

"Here, in the heart of the up 'n' coming East Village, artists five years younger than the Colab crowd have opened a space that offers advice about lowering your rent - in Spanish. People from the block donated all the furniture; local children wander in, giggling at the walls. At the opening last month, 400 people gobbled fish fritters cooked by the woman upstairs. It was so successful, as art events go, that Group Material has already earned the enmity of New Wave artists far and wide. 'Real cute,' smirked one. 'Well read,' snarls another. The members of Group Material return the compliment. 'We don't identify ourselves as New Wave artists,' says Beth Jaker. 'It seems to be a very reflective art,' her colleague Tim Rollins adds, 'a camp critique, the middle class making fun of itself. It's like the warning Walter Benjamin gave about the danger of aestheticizing politics. We're less interested in reflecting than projecting out onto the community.'"

Excerpt from "Enter the Anti-Space," Richard Goldstein's November 5, 1980 review in The Village Voice, reproduced in Show & Tell.