John Latham

God is Great (#4), 2005, Dimensions Variable, (Glass, Silicon, Books)


Philosophy and the Practice of. 1960. Signed and painted books, metal rust, clips, copper tubes, electric wires, wire-mesh, electric instrument panel, plaster on canvas on hardboard. 76 x 96 x 23 cm


Time Base and the Universe (detail) exhibition


Time Base and The Universe (detail) exhibition

John Latham was a conceptual artist that founded his work in his ethical, personal, and scientific beliefs. Born in 1921, in Rhodesia, (now Zambia) and died in 2006 in London. His work revolved around the collaboration between art and science and routinely referenced many scientific theories in his works. Throughout his life and art career, he believed that the traditional idea of physics was wrong (i.e. being a particle based) and felt that life was the "Least Event,"

Using a can of black spray paint, Latham produced a single burst of dots on a white surface. Latham realised that this could be used as a visual description of how a least-event (the spray burst) produced action (the dots) in a pre-existing, a-temporal omnipresent (the white wall). Latham later declared this idea as I054 (idiom 54).

What I really enjoy about his work were his one second paintings, of abstract forms with the use of spray paint to convey his theory of "Least Event" but also his "God is Great" work. Where, within a shroud of broken glass, lay sacred texts (Bible, Qur'an, and Talmud). Showing his ideas that violence and conflict is the result of ideological differences in societies.

Interview/Review
Gallery
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