I thought Signals was
really nice because it was about communications. And that name was taken from
sculptures by Takis ‘Signals’, he first made the sculptures that you would
touch to make sounds and later electro-magnetic signals. I just loved that idea
that you can communicate.
David
Medalla, 20091
Introduction
Signals was a periodical that was published in
association with the London-based contemporary art gallery Signals (1964-66) in
ten newspaper-sized issues, with the third number being a double issue making a
total of 11 published altogether. The masthead for the periodical describes it
as a “Newsbulletin” and each issue was published to coincide with a new exhibition
in the gallery, thus serving both a documentary function and as an exhibition
catalogue. The periodical’s editor was the Filipino artist David Medalla (1942-2020) and the director of the gallery was Paul Keeler.
The histories
of both Signals the periodical, and
Signals the gallery are intertwined with that of the name of a group that
appears under the Signals masthead
for the first two issues, which states that the publication was the “Newsbulletin
of the Centre for Advanced Creative Study.”2 The Centre for Advanced
Creative Study (1964) was originally a group of six men who were drawn together
through their shared artistic interests and who hoped through the newsbulletin
to “…provide a forum for all those who believe passionately in the correlation of the arts and Art’s imaginative integration with technology,
science, architecture and our entire environment.”3 The individual
members were the artists, David Medalla (1942-2020), Gustave Metzger (1926-2017), and
Marcello Salvadori (1928-2002), musician Christopher Walker, art critic Guy
Brett (1942-2021), and curator Paul Keeler.4
The editorial
in the first issue of Signals (#1,
1964) outlines in greater detail the cross-disciplinary aims of the Centre for
Advanced Creative Study, and it addresses the types of information the
newsbulletin planned to include, as well as indicating the curatorial direction
of the future gallery in exhibiting works by the international avant-garde,
with a particular emphasis on kinetic art and work by artists from Latin
America.
Singalz will contain news items on the
activities of the Centre, documentation and critical studies on the Centre’s
artists, as well as original writings by the artists themselves…we hope to
expand and increase our pages in the future: to include essays by architects,
art historians, scientists, technologists, economists, sociologists, and town
planners….Signalz shall bring to the
attention of the artist new developments in technology and science which might
be of assistance in the formation of the artist’s discipline, in the choice of
his materials and the improvement of his technique.5
The formation of Signals
at this particular moment in time parallels other international groups
which were also exploring the intersection of art and science including the
Parisian Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV, 1960-68), E.A.T. (Experiments
in Art and Technology launched in 1967) and the German Group Zero (1957-1966).6
The editorial continues adding that “…such an integration can only be
accomplished by most rigorous means: by the exercise of the highest aesthetic
standards, and when society gives to the artist its available materials, its
support, — and complete freedom in the
pursuit of his (the artist’s) art.”7
By the time of
the first issue of Signals in August
1964, Medalla and Keeler were living together in “…an elegant Georgian house in
Cornwall Gardens, off the Gloucester Road,”8 and Keeler was frenetically
promoting the kinetic arts including curating an important exhibition at the
Redfern Gallery in 1964 titled “Structure Vivantes: Mobiles/Images.” This
exhibition was deemed by one expert on the period as “…effectively the first
survey of kinetic art and optical art held in Britain…”.9 Other
curating opportunities included a nighttime exhibit of kinetic art during the
1964 Venice Bienniale, as well as presenting two exhibitions of the same in
their house at Cornwall Gardens. When Keeler’s father, an optical instruments
manufacturer, offered to lease him his four-story building on Wigmore Street
and Welbeck Street in the center of London, Keeler accepted and “the building
became the showroom of SIGNALS, London’s centre for the international
avant-garde.”10
In Signal’s editorial in the second issue
in September, 1964 (and before the move to Wigmore Street) Medalla is upbeat
about the reception of kinetic art and subsequently the production for this
issue was increased from the first issue’s four pages and 3000 copies to the
current issue’s 16 pages and a print run of 10,000 copies.11 Next to
this editorial is an announcement for their latest exhibition at Cornwall
Gardens titled a “Festival of Modern Art from Latin America,” that was
comprised of over 100 artworks, and because of its size would be staged in two
phases lasting two weeks each. Parallel to this statement and on the opposite
page is information about the move to Wigmore Street in November with details
about the building, as well as announcing that the inaugural show would be a
one-man exhibition by the Greek kinetic artist, Takis.
Signals the
gallery would be in operation from November 1964, to September 1966, an almost
two-year period in which major exhibitions of kinetic art and works by Latin
American artists, and others were presented in this large showroom of a gallery
in its prominent central London location. The gallery was abruptly closed when
Keeler’s conservative American father withdrew his backing after the
publication in Signals, #8 of an
address by Lewis Mumford in his position as President of the American Academy
of Arts and Letters, and an accompanying letter by the poet Robert Lowell, in
which both of them decried America’s involvement in the war in Vietnam.
Looking for Signals: Issues #1–2 (1964)
I want now to
turn by my attention to the first two issues of Signals as they establish the format, design and scope of the
periodical as well as Medalla’s own personal vision for the newsbulletin before the move to Wigmore
street. Signals was not Medalla’s
first foray into the world of publishing as he explains in this 2009 interview;
Long before I did the Newsbulletin, when I was a young lad, I
was I think twelve, I was in the Camp Rising Sun, a scholarship camp in New
York and I edited the newspaper, but it was only a small paper, and I did
something similar when I was back in Manilla, I would hang out with the newspaper
workers that published my poems in major magazines. So I could go to the Manila Times and all these magazines so
I knew how I think newspapers were put together – just by osmosis.12
It should also
be noted that as a well-respected artist himself, Medalla was very much a part
of the lively arts environment in London, and his own ground-breaking works
included kinetic bubble mobiles and sand machines both of which he claimed were
the first examples of “auto-creative art.” Since that time Medalla has continued
to be engaged, in his own whimsical fashion with the artworld and more recently
he had two installation works in the 2017 Venice Biennale. See center-page spread below from Signals, #2, Sept., 1964 with photographs of Madella's "Cloud Canyons: Bubble Mobiles (1964)."
 |
| Signals, #2, Sept., 1964 |
By the time
Medalla was living in Cornwall Gardens he had already published a small
catalogue about his art, and had established a friendly relationship with the printers
in Windsor. One day in conversation with them they suggested “…better than a
catalogue why don’t you do the newspaper for the arts.” Medalla goes on to note
that there was a newspaper of the arts at this time which was published by the
gallerist Iris Clert in Paris titled Iris
Time (#1-46, 1962-1975), and while recognizing the need for a periodical of
this kind, he was critical of its thrust as the periodical was “…really about
her!”13,14
Signals, #1, Aug., 1964
Singalz #1, establishes the initial prototype
for the page design and typography of the periodical with this issue’s four
pages of quotes from famous artists and scientists, poems, reviews of
international exhibitions and books, updates on different artists’ activities, photographs
of artists and their works. Also included is a summary of the planned
exhibitions at the Cornwall Garden location, as well as feedback on the surprisingly
large attendance at the most recent exhibition with 1,983 visitors to this
“…first pilot of the Centre for Advanced Creative Study last month…”15
This issue also
contains a half page of Medalla’s writings in which he outlines a number of
ideas for creating new artworks using a variety of natural systems. Accompanying
this text is a brief, but comprehensive autobiographical profile of this
22-year-old artists’ burgeoning career.
The design of
this black and white issue is sparse with the title and masthead running down
the right side, with the texts occupying four columns interspersed with black
and white photographs of individuals and artworks throughout the publication.
One rather unique feature, and one that would be a constant throughout the life
of the publication, is Medalla’s habit of printing all proper names in bold so
that they stand out from the rest of the texts. Medalla remarks on this feature
in his 2009 interview stating “…people used to be annoyed with it because they
like the idea of normal newspapers. I think it was my own creation.”16
However, I consider it a savvy networking strategy in which Medalla’s literal
‘name dropping’ helped to create a sense of a network and a community of
interested and supportive individuals around the periodical and the gallery,
and by extension both kinetic art and contemporary art from Latin America.
Signals #2, solidifies the cover design and
inside format as seen in Signals #1
and this design would be used for the next four issues (#2-6) with the major
addition being the inclusion of different colors in the front and back covers, as
well as each issue’s title, date and the dividing lines used to delineate the
columns of text. Interestingly, on the front page of this issue is a work by
the Venezuelan poet Robert Ganzó reproduced in Spanish which serves to proudly
announce the international perspective of this periodical. The editorial
further outlines this international strategy in acknowledging for this issue
“…the cooperation and assistance of the Embassies of Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay,
Venezuela and other Latin American countries.”17 In addition, the
editorial lists where they planned to distribute copies of this issue, in what
can only be described as a expansive and inclusive international strategy,
stating;
2,500 copies of this issue will go
direct to leading art collectors in Great Britain, America, Europe, Canada and
Japan. A further 3,000 copies will go to leading industrialists and heads of
business firms in Great Britain and the Commonwealth. The rest of this exciting
number will go to schools, clubs, technical colleges, museums, libraries, art
galleries and universities in Great Britain, Asia, Africa, South America, the
U.S.A., Australia and Europe.18
This issue contains
a feature on art and architecture in Brazil and Venezuela, four manifestoes by
the Centre for Advanced Creative Study member, Gustav Metzger and the center
pages feature photographic documentation of David Madella’s bubble machine
works from 1964.
Signals #3/4–6 (1964-1965)
Notable amongst
these four issues is Signals #3/4, which
is a hefty twenty-four-page double issue dedicated to Takis and published for the
inaugural exhibition at the newly opened Wigmore Street gallery. For the first
time, the masthead lists Medalla as the editor, and the name of the Centre for
Advanced Creative Study has been dropped from the masthead and replaced with
the following “Signals London is a non-profit organization dedicated to the
adventures of the modern spirit.”19
 |
| Signals, #3/4, Oct., - Nov., 1964 |
 |
| Signals, #5, Dec., 1964 - Jan., 1965 |
 |
| Signals, #6, Feb., - March, 1964 |
In an article
by Medalla discussing his activities during the 1960s he reflects on his
experiences as Signals’ editor;
Signals
newsbulletin was issued
in conjunction with each and every exhibition at Signals. I was its sole
editor, typist, lay-out artist and copy reader. Each issue was a
veritable-tour-de-force. In a short space of time (sometimes less than 48
hours) I had to collate the widely divergent materials and relate them to the
wealth of images: photos of the artists’ works we were exhibiting, as well as
images from the world of science. Our interest at that time in the
inter-relationship between the arts and the sciences were strong.20
Medalla
continues in his reminiscences and illustrates the periodical’s wide reach
across different artistic mediums when he notes that “The issue contained
contributions by Takis’s many admirers, including…Brion Gysin, Sinclair Beiles,
Harold Norse, George Andrews, Alain Jouffroy and Marcel Duchamp.”21
Reflecting on
his role as editor, Medalla addresses below the issues he confronted when he
wanted the periodical to become more inclusive and his strategies for achieving
this;
…I had a difficult position because I
wanted to expand it, and the gallery became known as a gallery for kinetic
artists and Latin American artists, but a lot of my artists friends were
actually American artists. I think in only one of these issues I managed to get
Barnett Newman in it, and I wanted to put things from Rothko and all these
people but you see the gallery, Signals, had this thing called the gallery
‘line’ or ‘style’ and that was not my cup of tea really so we did things like Soundings where I can put in all kinds
of other artists. This was very important, in those days there was a rather
monolithic demeanour and also the art world in London for contemporary art was
very small.22
Furthermore,
Medalla notes how he actively worked to expand the periodical’s contributors
stating “…I liked to put good literature in it, I had the good fortune to meet
Jose Luis Borges, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg and they all contributed
to it.”23
When asked by
an interviewer what was unique about the Signals gallery Medalla responded by stating;
Almost every day it was a different
situation. People actually met there and it was open 24 hours. In the day the
great scientist J.D. Bernal would pass by and I remember once Jonathon Miller
was looking around trying to find ideas and people would come in and have a
look and talk to each other and people met. It was a good meeting place and we
always had good refreshments! And then there were a lot of literary people so a
lot of poets would meet there and the musicians, classic music and popular
music. This was what Signals was very famous for…24
This feeling
that Signals was more than just a gallery, but a free-flowing environment in
which people from different walks of life felt comfortable enough to meet and converse,
all the while surrounded by cutting edge contemporary art from Europe and Latin
America, reflects a new kind of gallery that mirrored the burgeoning
counter-culture that was emerging in both the UK, Europe and the USA. And this
sense of a loose international community
of individuals was also reflected in the range of subjects, people and art
world news that Medalla managed to cram into the pages of Signals.25 While these ‘newsbulletins’ initially were intended
to be a voice piece for the activities of the Centre for Advanced Creative
Study, the publication really comes into its own with the move to Wigmore Street.
Furthermore, I want to propose that the naming of the periodical as a
‘newsbulletin’, traditionally a publication with news about a particular
organization for its membership, coupled with Medalla’s practice of printing
people’s names in bold, can both be viewed as smart discursive strategies through
which a sense of ‘community’ was actively cultivated amongst readers of the
periodical, and visitors to the gallery.
Signaling Ahead #7–11
(1965-1966)
I now want to
briefly survey the remaining five issues that complete the life cycle of this
periodical.
 |
| Signals, #7, April - May, 1965 |
 |
| Signals, #7, April - May, 1965 [Lygia Clark, "Walking Along - Do It Yourself"] |
 |
| Signals, #8, June - July, 1965 |
Signals #7 and #8 both have a new and spacious
design for their front covers with the name of the periodical in big bold
letters located at the bottom of the front cover. Signals #7 is devoted to the work of the Brazilian artist Lygia
Clark (1920-1988) and her exhibition at Signals was comprised of approximately
60 works created over a 15-year period. This 12-page issue is devoted to
exploring the interactive art of this major Brazilian artist and includes the
following statement about her philosophy of the artwork stating “The work of
art should call for the immediate participation of the spectator and the latter
should be immersed in it.”26 As if to reinforce this idea, on page seven is a printed
work by Clark titled “Walking Along – Do It Yourself,” with instructions to cut
out either of 3 boxes of paired letters in which the participant is then
instructed to glue the ends of these strips together and to start cutting them
in order to create a Moebius loop and to;
…go on cutting always in the same
direction until the strip becomes so narrow that it is impossible to continue. Attention: bear in mind that the
expression is your own, and it consists entirely in cutting, that is the
act.27
This printed
matter piece really stands out as the one work in the life of the periodical
that invites the reader to physically interact with the periodical in the
creation of an artwork, as well as illustrating a recurrent theme that runs
through all of the issues, as well as that of the Signals’ group itself, and
that is interactivity.
Signals #8 is connected to the Soundings Two
exhibition with articles and images of many of the works and artists included
in the exhibition. Two other notable features of this typically jampacked issue
is the inclusion of an informative and positive article from The Guardian
newspaper by M. G. McNay, who surveys the gallery’s activities and in
particular its young director, Paul Keeler in a column entitled “Laboratory of
the Invisible.”28 But perhaps the most important, or infamous, are
the pieces by Lewis Mumford and Robert Lowell in statements against the Vietnam
war. These two pieces represent the most overtly political writings in the life
of the periodical, as well as being the ones that aroused the ire of Paul
Keeler’s father and his subsequent termination of their use of the Wigmore Street
building, and the demise of both the Signals
gallery and the periodical, eight months later.
The final three
Signals, #9–11 all have different
cover designs with a much smaller masthead located in a variety of locations on
the front cover. Issues #10–11 like the Takis issue, are the three largest
issues comprising twenty-four pages each issue.
 |
| Signals, #9, Aug., - Sept., - Oct., 1965 |
Signals #9 is dedicated to the first exhibition
in the UK of the Venezuelan artist Carolos Cruz-Diez’s works (physichromies) which play with the
viewers vision as s/he moves in front of the works. Beginning on page three is
a dense two-page text on modern physics that Medalla coaxed out of the famous
physicist Werner Heisenberg. This issue also contains the only writings by an
American artist, in this case Barnett Newman and the whole inside back page is
taken up with a variety of reviews about Signals’ recent and current
exhibitions. One review offers some insight into the location of the gallery
and the well-healed environment in which this avant-garde gallery was located,
observing, “In a quarter full of doctors, opticians, and dentists, it has three
good floors of exhibition space with good lighting and facilities demonstrating
kinetic devices dependent on electricity, magnetism or motors.”29
 |
| Signals, #10, Nov., - Dec., 1965 |
Signals #10 is wholly taken up with the
retrospective of the Venezuelan artist Jesús-Rafael Soto. This issue represents
a substantial catalogue for Soto’s exhibition and as usual color has been used in
the front and back covers, and in a new departure there is color in two pages
inside the periodical. Soto’s retrospective marks the one-year anniversary of
Signals and this issue includes a detailed listing of all the exhibitions that
had taken place during this time. Additionally, there is a listing of
exhibitions with which Signals had collaborated, in locations outside the
confines of the gallery. At the end of this piece is a short note by Medalla
emphasizing the documentary function of the periodical stating “Full
documentation on all our exhibitions appears regularly in SIGNALS Newsbulletin
(edited by David Medalla), which has now completed its first volume.”30
 |
| Signals, #11, Jan., - Feb., - March., 1966 |
The final issue
is Signals #11, which once again is a
substantial twenty-four-page issue with a two-color cover, dedicated to the
retrospective exhibition at Signals titled “A Quarter of a Century of the Art
of Alejandro Otero: 1940-1965.” The issue contains a large number of texts
dedicated to this Venezuelan artists’ work as well as a number of reviews of
the show scattered about the periodical, coupled with an interview and three
pieces of writing by Otero himself. On the back page is a short notification
from Paul Keeler informing readers that this issue of Signals introduces a new quarterly publication schedule from its
previous bi-monthly one, with Keeler blaming the high costs of production as
well as the need for the editor to “…concentrate on his own sculpture, and
partly to make for issues which will have a broader scope.” Interestingly, he also
notes that financing for the periodical comes from the “…sales of art works
from our showrooms, including works donated by various artists.”31
Summary
I want now to
conclude this brief examination of this curiously hybrid periodical and to detail
a number of themes and issues embedded within its pages.
At the
beginning of this study I relate how the printers of a catalogue of Medalla’s
works had enjoined him to go beyond this particular genre and to do a “…newspaper
for the arts,” and in many ways this is exactly what Medalla achieved with Signals, despite its mostly bi-monthly
publishing schedule.32 That ‘news’ would be a staple of the
periodical is also reinforced by its self-proclaimed identity as a
‘newsbulletin,’ as well as the newspaper format it was printed in, and even
more so when presented in its folded format. In varying degrees, throughout the
life of the periodical Medalla included all sorts of newsworthy titbits of
information about what was happening in the artworld, both nationally and
internationally to the artists and others within the gallery’s orbit and
beyond. This chatty informality is always accompanied with his practice of
printing proper names in bold, a typographic strategy of ‘name dropping’ that I
would argue served to create a galaxy of associations and connections, indeed
an ‘imagined community’33 of these people, who often came
from varied backgrounds—artists, writers, scientists and London’s larger social
scene.
One writer has suggested that, “The publication was part newsletter and part society page (my emphasis)” and I
would concur that there certainly is a sense of Signals being a kind of society
page for the arts that tracked both the comings and goings of a variety of
players and supporters of the avant-garde arts of the time.34
As I have observed
at the beginning of this text, Signals also
served a double role as both a catalogue for exhibitions at the gallery, and a
documentary function by recording the activities of the gallery, as well as the
larger field of kinetic art and the Latin American avant-garde. The inclusion
of reviews of exhibitions at Signals were often accompanied with the critic’s assessment
on the general activities of the gallery, coupled with their responses to specific
exhibitions at Signals, this despite some reviewers’ reluctance to really
engage with the issues that this new kinetic art confronted them with.35
John A. Tyson
in a particularly insightful and detailed text on Signals proposes that Signals
be viewed as an “alternative space for art,” applying art historian Gwen
Allen’s term in her groundbreaking book on artists’ magazines.36 My
understanding of this term is two-fold, one application refers to artists’
magazines as providing a space for conceptually based works which, because of
their heavy text-based nature, are ideally suited to being realized on the
printed page. My other entrée into this term rests on the distinction between the two terms representational and presentational, with the former illustrating the ways in which traditional magazines 'represent' or simply reproduce images of artworks on their pages, as distinct from artists' magazines where the works 'presented' fuse with the materiality of the page as their field or canvas, allowing the artwork to be more fully realized. However, from this I would have to conclude that while Signals is certainly a space for art, I wouldn't define it as an 'alternative space' although it was certainly showcasing artwork that was cutting edge and challenging to audiences of the period. Neither would I argue that Signals functioned in the presentational manner of artists' magazines. Indeed, there is only one exception to this and this is the work, which I described earlier, titled "Walking Along - Do It Yourself" (#7, 1965) by Lygia Clark, in which the viewer is instructed to cut the piece out of the page in order to create their own mobius strip artwork.
Following on
from the above, the question that now hangs in the air is how to describe
Medalla’s Signals. Is it simply a
‘newsbulletin’, or a ‘newspaper of the arts’ as his printers in Windsor proposed,
and he implicitly recognizes in his musings about precursors (Iris Time), or an altogether different
animal? I want to propose below that Signals
functioned simultaneously on a number of different levels.
Firstly, in its
original manifestation, Signals was
created to serve as an inhouse newsbulletin for the activities of the Centre
for Advanced Creative Study, and later expanded to cover the programming of the
Signals gallery. Thus, I have no issue with defining it in terms of a
traditional newsbulletin, since it
was created to inform a quite specific community of artists and others
interested in the intersection of arts and the sciences.
Secondly, I
would describe it as a newspaper,
with the arts and the artworld as its subject and its audience although it
never followed the periodicity of traditional newspapers. Signals served in much the same manner as a traditional newspaper,
with news of artists’ and artworld activities, current developments in the
cultural sphere, and all of this diced through with the gallery’s activities,
and snippets of art world goings-on in the style of newspapers society pages.
Finally, I
would also define Signals as an artists’ newspaper for a number of
different reasons, not the least being that the editor himself was a
well-respected artist. Even a cursory look at Signals reveals that Medalla has taken any number of liberties with
the standard newspaper format – the bolded proper names, the typographic play
seen throughout the issues, and the varied layouts illustrating artists’
writings, texts and images of artworks. All of this variety creates a
compelling frisson for the
readership, and it’s something that one does not see in the design and layout
of our daily newspapers.
The other
dimension to my definition of Signals
as an artists’ newspaper, is that I would argue that the whole publishing project
represents an artwork that Medalla created in the medium of print. This is not
the place to go into a lengthy discussion of Medalla’s particular way of working,
but the story of how it came about via a suggestion by some printers in
Windsor, England, is a wonderful example of the open and fluid manner in which
he channels inspiration for new works. It also illustrates one commentator’s
take on his working method who stated “His approach to life is protean, which
is to say, he is a versatile actor capable of playing many roles.”37
Indeed, in the very same book from which this quote was taken is a copy of an
article from the Saturday Mirror,
Manila (1954) titled “Boy Sleeps, Finds Himself in Hong Kong.” The article
describes how Medalla, as a 12-year old schoolboy, fell asleep in a cabin of
the SS President Wilson that was docked in Manila, and awoke to find himself 694
miles away in Hong Kong!
Futhermore, this 'protean' quality was also illustrated to me while I was working with Medalla on an installation and he sent me a hilarious text for the catalogue. The text describes how in 1961 he came to create the University of Failure, initiated in exactly the same manner through a chance encounter in Paris”.38 This improvisatory approach to life and artmaking, is the constant thread with which this self-proclaimed transcendental-hedonist ”39 has stitched together a totally original artistic career in a wide variety of media, and the circumstances of the birth of Signals is no exception.
In a most profound sense Medalla's career has been a continuous improvisation and the resulting 'works' are but the residue of these unexpected journeys. Signals however, occupies a unique place within Medalla's oeuvre, and this printed matter piece stands out as a singularly 'embodied' work within the larger territory and context of his artistic practice.
Footnotes
1. Leak, Darren and Bianca Chu, Signals, S/2, Sotheby’s London, 2018, p.
122. This paper and my research on Signals
has been greatly helped by the publication of a boxed-set facsimile of Signals reprinted by Iniva in 1995.
I also want to acknowledge here the expert editorial assistance that Lillian Sizemore has provided me in preparing this article for publication.
2. From issue
#3-8 the new title of the masthead of the periodical reads: Newsbulletin of
Signals London. For the last 3 issues the title is just Signals. Note: in the first issue Signalz is spelt with a ‘z,’ and thereafter spelt Signals.
3. Signalz, #1, 1964, London, p. 1.
4. Soon after
the formation of the gallery “…the original group had dispersed. Salvadori
would form his own ‘Centre for the Study of Science in Art’ in Chalk Farm,
London and a fallout between Metzger and Medalla led the artists to part ways.”
Metzger would go on to organize the infamous 1966 “Destruction in Art
Symposium.” Leak,
Darren and Bianca Chu, Signals, S/2,
Sotheby’s London, 2018, p. 26
5. Signalz, #1, 1964, London, p. 1.
6. Leak, Darren and Bianca
Chu, Signals, S/2, Sotheby’s London,
2018, p. 25.
7. Signalz, #1, 1964, London, p. 1.
8. Medalla,
David, “Memories of the Sixties,” in And,
No. 17, 1988, p. 14.
9. Brett, Guy, Exploding Galaxies: The Art of David Medalla,
Kala Press, London, 1995, p. 47.
10. Medalla,
David, “Memories of the Sixties,” in And,
No. 17, 1988, p. 14, 16.
11. Signals, Vol. 1, #2, September 1964, p.
2.
12. Leak, Darren and Bianca
Chu, Signals, S/2, Sotheby’s London,
2018, p. 121.
13. Leak, Darren and Bianca
Chu, Signals, S/2, Sotheby’s London,
2018, p. 121.
14. Iris Time was a two-page newspaper published in 46 issues between
1962-1975 and “Replacing the traditional invitation, each issue announced
upcoming shows, including critics reviews, Indian horoscopes and reactions of
famous guests at the vernissage.” Source: https://www.fabernett.com/pages/books/48824/iris-time-unlimited-no-1-6-october-1962-through-no-46-april-1975-all-published.
15. Signalz
Vol. 1, No. 1, August 1964, p. 2.
16. Leak, Darren and Bianca Chu, Signals, S/2, Sotheby’s London, 2018, p.
121.
John A. Tyson in the most detailed exploration of Signals that I have found also comments
on this feature of the periodical, suggesting its strategy mirrors that of a
section found in a particular type of periodical stating, “The publication was
part newsletter and part society page
(my emphasis).” In: John A. Tyson, Signals
Crossing Borders: Cybernetic Words and Images and 1960s Avant-Garde Art,
Interfaces #36, Fall, 2017, p. 90.
17. Editorial, Signals #2, 1964, p. 2.
18. Ibid., p. 2.
19. Signals #3/4, 1964, p. 1.
20. Medalla,
David, “Memories of the Sixties,” in And,
No. 17, 1988, p. 16.
21. Ibid. p. 16.
22. Leak, Darren and Bianca
Chu, Signals, S/2, Sotheby’s London,
2018, p. 122.
23. Ibid., p. 122.
24. Ibid. p. 127. Medalla also notes that
when Signals closed, the Indica gallery emerged as the trendy spot for Signals
patrons and the younger arty London crowd.
25. Issues #1 – 8 include the word
‘newsbulletin’ in the periodical’s masthead, but is dropped from for the last
three issues.
26. Signals #7, 1966, p. 4.
27. Ibid., p. 7.
28. Signals #8, 1965, p. 2.
29. Signals #9, 1965, p. 14.
30. Signals #10, 1965, p. 15.
31. Signals #11, 1966, p. 24. Aside from the first two issues of Signals all of the other nine issues
were published bi-monthly.
Note should
be made of Medalla’s developing career at this time with his kinetic
sculptures, in particular his Bubble
Machines, which are still being exhibited and collected by major artworld
institutions.
32. Leak, Darren and Bianca Chu, Signals, S/2, Sotheby’s London, 2018, p.
121.
33. This term was coined to describe the
discursive effects of newspapers in the construction of national identity, see
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities,
Verso, London, 1991.
34. Tyson, John A., Signals Crossing Borders: Cybernetic Words and Images and 1960s
Avant-Garde Art, Interfaces #36, Fall, 2017, p. 90.
As I note in footnote #16 this is a detailed and
sophisticated analysis of Signals and
would be required reading for anyone trying to understand Signals.
35. As I have related in this text the three
issues with the largest numbers of pages were substantial exhibition catalogues
devoted to the works of Takis (#3/4, 1964), Soto (#10, 1965) and Otero (#11,
1966).
36. John A. Tyson, Signals Crossing Borders: Cybernetic Words and Images and 1960s
Avant-Garde Art, Interfaces #36, Fall, 2017, p. 68.
Allen, Gwen, Artists’
Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art, MIT Press: Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 2011, p. 7.
37. Dore Ashton in: Brett, Guy, Exploding Galaxies: The Art of David Medalla,
Kala Press, London, 1995, p. 9.
38. This text below, “University of Failure
(1961-2003)” was published in the catalogue for his installation “There’s
nothing so underrated as a great shit,” WC Gallery, January 15 – April 16, 2005,
De Pere, WI, curated by myself.
In the summer of 1961 I
was in Paris. A handsome young poet told me told me that if I can get a
student’s card, I could eat in a student’s restaurant in Paris and thus save
money on food bills. He recommended a course on French civilisation at the
Sorbonne for me to enroll in, but when I went to the Sorbonne, the course was
over for the year. Instead, there was at the Sorbonne an international congress
of college principals and university presidents from all over the world. The
registrar asked me what academic institution I came from. I said (with thinly
disguised irony) that I came from the Isle de Failure (Island of Failure)
somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and that I am the president of the struggling
university there. I was duly registered in the international academic congress.
I met many of the delegates who expressed interest in the imaginary
correspondence courses I conducted. I gave them my name and address in England.
When I returned to London I received letters from people all over the world who
wanted to enroll in the University of Failure. Soon I started a variety of
courses whereby I David Medalla, president of the University of Failure,
will guarantee to fail anyone in any course he/she chooses? I failed a wife
in Bombay who keep failing. I failed a cowboy in Montana who could not have a
proper erection. Soon, however, the Ministry of Education ordered me to stop my
courses. And so, I failed as the president of the University of Failure.
39. David Medalla in: Perkins, Stephen, There’s nothing so underrated as a great
shit: A Participatory installation by David Medalla, exhibition catalogue,
WC Gallery, De Pere, WI, 2005, np.