It's time, man. It feels imminent.

The artist has undertaken a period of research in the ICA London’s archive, focusing on two seminal events – the exhibition When Attitudes Become Form (1971) and the conference The State of British Art, A Debate (1978). Each connects to debates around art-making and organisation: Pierce presents both the practical remnants of institutional organisation, including redundant pedestals and archival documents; and the broader concerns of political organisation and protest through interviews and documentation, including video of a workshop where participants acted out gestures and recited quotes from bystanders at political demonstrations in the US between 1968-2008.

The project’s title refers to one such quote. With each location it changes, as does the selection of archival material displayed amongst ubiquitous stands from past exhibitions – borrowed from local organisations with ties to art-making, collectivity and self-governance. Central to Pierce’s work is a consideration of forms of gathering, both historical examples and situations that she initiates. How we speak about the political in art and what bearing a legacy of conceptual 1970s art practices has on a present moment are among the debates that Mary Kelly speaks about in an interview with Pierce, which is part of an audio track that also includes artists/educators Liam Gillick, Dave Beech and Adrian Rifkin.

- Richard Birkett, Assistant Curator, ICA London

Commissioned by Richard Birkett and Mark Sladen for the ICA, London, as part of Nought to Sixty (May - October 2008)