East Country Yard Show
Encyclopedia
East Country Yard Show was an exhibition of contemporary art organized by Henry Bond
and Sarah Lucas
. It was on view between 31 May—22 June 1990. The exhibition was a "seminal" London group show which was significant in the subsequent development of the Young British Artists
.
complex. The docks were closed in 1969, and by 1990 were being redeveloped by a plethora of property development
companies. One of them, Skillion—who had purchased several large buildings but had not yet begun to develop them—was approached by Bond
. Reviewing the show in Time Out the art critic David Lillington said, "The East Country Yard is a gigantic complex of old warehouses in which each artist has a 200-foot-long room." Equally, writing in his book Lucky Kunst: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art, commentator Gregor muir said, "'East Country Yard' in South Dock, Docklands ... featured huge installations by Gary Hume and Anya Gallaccio, and could claim to have taken place in a space four times the size of Saatchi Gallery."
, art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon
said,
, Kate Bush said,
printed rolls of wallpaper featuring an orange motif, "the paper was pasted on the walls, and on the floor Gallaccio made an oblong 'carpet' comprising one ton of Valencia oranges which gradually decayed over the duration of the show."
Henry Bond
Henry Bond is an English writer, photographer curator, and visual artist. In his Lacan at the Scene , Bond made a contribution to theoretical psychoanalysis....
and Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s...
. It was on view between 31 May—22 June 1990. The exhibition was a "seminal" London group show which was significant in the subsequent development of the Young British Artists
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
.
Location and scale
The show was presented in a large empty warehouse, the East Country Yard building, in South Dock, Rotherhithe within the 460 acres (1.9 km²) Surrey Commercial DocksSurrey Commercial Docks
The Surrey Commercial Docks were a large group of docks in Rotherhithe on the south bank of the Thames in South East London. The docks operated in one form or another from 1696 to 1969...
complex. The docks were closed in 1969, and by 1990 were being redeveloped by a plethora of property development
Real estate development
Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...
companies. One of them, Skillion—who had purchased several large buildings but had not yet begun to develop them—was approached by Bond
Henry Bond
Henry Bond is an English writer, photographer curator, and visual artist. In his Lacan at the Scene , Bond made a contribution to theoretical psychoanalysis....
. Reviewing the show in Time Out the art critic David Lillington said, "The East Country Yard is a gigantic complex of old warehouses in which each artist has a 200-foot-long room." Equally, writing in his book Lucky Kunst: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art, commentator Gregor muir said, "'East Country Yard' in South Dock, Docklands ... featured huge installations by Gary Hume and Anya Gallaccio, and could claim to have taken place in a space four times the size of Saatchi Gallery."
Exhibited artists
- Henry BondHenry BondHenry Bond is an English writer, photographer curator, and visual artist. In his Lacan at the Scene , Bond made a contribution to theoretical psychoanalysis....
- Anya GallaccioAnya GallaccioAnya Gallaccio is a Scottish artist, who often works with organic matter. She was a nominee in the 2003 Turner Prize.-Life and career:...
- Gary HumeGary HumeGary Stewart Hume is an English artist. His work is strongly identified with the YBA artists who came to prominence in the early-1990s. In 1996, Hume was nominated for the Turner Prize, but lost out to Douglas Gordon. Hume was elected a Royal Academician in 2001.-Life and work:Hume was born in...
- Michael LandyMichael LandyMichael Landy RA is one of the Young British Artists . He is best known for the performance piece installation Break Down , in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the Art Bin project at the South London Gallery. On 29 May 2008 Landy was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in...
- Sarah LucasSarah LucasSarah Lucas is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s...
- Virginia NimarkohVirginia Nimarkoh-Career:In 1990 a series of Nimarkoh's photo-installations were selected by Henry Bond and Sarah Lucas for inclusion in their warehouse exhibition East Country Yard Show....
- Tom Trevor
Critical reception
Writing in The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon
Andrew Graham-Dixon
Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon is a British art historian and broadcaster.-Education:Graham-Dixon was educated at the independent Westminster School and at Christ Church at the University of Oxford, where he read English...
said,
Goldsmiths' graduates are unembarrassed about promoting themselves and their work: some of the most striking exhibitions in London over the past few months—"The East Country Yard Show", or "Gambler", both staged in docklands—have been independently organized and funded by Goldsmiths' graduates as showcases for their work. This has given them a reputation for pushiness, yet it should also be said that in terms of ambition, attention to display and sheer bravado there has been little to match such shows in the country's established contemporary art institutions. They were far superior, for instance, to any of the contemporary art shows that have been staged by the Liverpool Tate in its own multi-million-pound dockland site.Writing in Artforum
Artforum
Artforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art.-Publication:The magazine is published ten times a year, September through May, along with an annual summer issue...
, Kate Bush said,
[Hirst's] Freeze anticipated a spate of do-it-yourself group shows staged in cheap, sprawling, ex-industrial spaces in recession-hit East London. Henry Bond and Sarah Lucas's East Country Yard Show as well as Carl Freedman and Billee Sellman's Modern Medicine and Gambler, all in 1990, were, with Freeze, the shows that fueled the myth of YBA as, paradoxically, both oppositional and entrepreneurial.Keith Patrick said,
[Following Freeze] many of the same artists showed again two years later in four artist-led exhibitions Modern Medicine, Gambler, the East Country Yard Show and Market ... although Freeze had been poorly attended and barely reviewed, these shows together became a symbol of a new artist-led entrepreneurship, a combination of calculated anarchy and an astute reading of the changing relationship of the artist to the market.
Gallaccio's installation Tense
For her component of the exhibition Anya GallaccioAnya Gallaccio
Anya Gallaccio is a Scottish artist, who often works with organic matter. She was a nominee in the 2003 Turner Prize.-Life and career:...
printed rolls of wallpaper featuring an orange motif, "the paper was pasted on the walls, and on the floor Gallaccio made an oblong 'carpet' comprising one ton of Valencia oranges which gradually decayed over the duration of the show."