“It isn’t so much what’s on the table that matters, as what’s on the chairs”

Jonathan Swift, from a letter to his friend Esther Johnson, 1711

//Simon Haynes in his ICA sitting room, 1970. Source publication: Unknown//

Ten Sitting Rooms was the title of a group exhibition curated by Jasia Reichardt at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1970. She organised a budget of £100 for each artist and gave them the brief of making a sitting room in spaces of either 15 x 18 feet or 12 x 24 feet.

I was alerted to the show’s existence by participant Simon Haynes, whose work I have been featuring here. Haynes’ Pop environment, which was produced in collaboration with his wife Sue, developed the themes and materials they used in the boardroom interior and furniture created earlier that year for Trevor Myles’ and Tommy Roberts’ boutique Mr Freedom at 430 King’s Road.

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Tags: Andrew Logan, Bruce Lacey, Carol Joseph, Charles Hayter, Diane Livey, Diane Logan, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Elizabeth Harrison, Gerard Wilson, ICA, Ivor Cutler, Jasia Reichardt, John Furnival, Jonathan Meades, Jonathan Swift, Marlene Raybould, Oxford School of Architecture, Patrick Hughes, Simon Haynes, Sue Haynes, Trevor myles, Vaughan Grylls

Cover design based on artwork from: (front) C.Comics No. 2, 1965; (back) The Friendly Way, 1972.

The new BeatBooks catalogue is preoccupied with a print netherworld encompassing one-offs, limited editions and short-runs published by  concrete poets, beats and other outsiders.

There are also juicy examples of smack-sensationalising pulp fiction and – in one section alone – 36 items relating to The Naked Lunch, including  Chicago Review excerpts from 1958 and William Burroughs’ first US LP release.
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Tags: Andrew Sclanders, BeatBooks, Bob Cobbing, Brion Gysin, Chicago Review, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Henri Chopin, Ian Finlay Hamilton, Joe Brainard, Junkie, Orgy Boys, Ted Berrigan, The Naked Lunch, William Lee