(Bruce Mclean was King for a Day): King for a day (1972/2015), GCGCA(i)

King for a day

Hayward Gallery, London

21 Jun - 22 Sep 2015

‘Thus high, by thy advice
And thy assistance is King Richard seated.
But shall we wear these glories for a day,
Or shall they last and we rejoice in them?’

- Richard III, Act 4, Scene 2

‘The Quotidian is a philosophical concept that cannot be understood outside philosophy; it designates for and by philosophy the non-philosophical and is unthinkable in another context; it is a concept that neither belongs to nor reflects everyday life, but rather expresses its possible transfiguration in philosophical terms.’

- Henri Lefebvre

Symbolic power
The crown and sceptre
Historical re-enactment
The practical effects of an archeological imagination?
Footsteps to the castle
Following historical footsteps
Enter the ephemeral
Escape the everyday (for a day)
The King and the Fool (jester)
Fool for a day
The distant past in the present

Bruce McLean as King (for a Day): King for a day (1972/2015), GCGCA(i)

Critical notes

The concept of history in the collective singular is opposed to a common, everyday understanding of history as a discipline primarily concerned with the past. It is concerned primarily with temporal, anthropological and speculative dimensions, currently embodied in the concept of modernity as the afterlife of the concept of history in the collective singular (‘our’ history).

It links together the past that has occurred, the anticipated future, and the present as it is being lived and acted. It includes an anthropological meaning: history is the history of humanity, and in this worldwide sense, the word history of peoples. Humanity becomes both the total object and the unique subject of history, at the same time as history becomes a collective singular (‘our’).

Thought can be 'critical' of itself. And this criticality, which lifts us from immersion in our everyday affairs, is exemplified in modernity by the discursive practise of philosophy. Poetry and practise are two conflicting forces (the result of which is ‘philosophy’).

Art Historical Reference

In 1969, Bruce McLean made a proposal for a retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London, entitled ‘King for a Day and 999 other pieces/works/things/etc. He was subsequently invited to exhibit at the Tate Gallery in 1972, Bruce McLean was able to actualize his previous idea, and organized a one-day retrospective titled ‘King for a Day’, after which he would retire from the art world. The genesis of King for a day was a seemingly contrary decision to stop being an artist. McLean said that ‘I had heard that if you have a retrospective at the Tate, that’s the end of your life as an artist’.

‘King for a Day and 999 other pieces/works/things/etc.’ (proposal for a retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in 1969)

1000 ‘pieces' were itemised in the form of a list. The following is a selection:

1. King for a day piece.
2. Wear a hat with a silver lining piece.
17. King revisited work.
45. 9 postcards of the Barnes Area.
78. Dying King for a day piece.
96. All artists dream of Paris Art Work.
169. Guy Fawkes piece (smoke) etc.
357. Ther'll be a sculpture in the Hillside, Piece.
358. Ther'll be a sculpture in the dale, piece.
416. Walking in the rain piece.
465. The artist as your friendly bore, piece.
491. Reassessment of the last 491 pieces, part 1 piece.
525. Photograph of the artist's home when he was a young man, piece.
563. If I knew that you were coming I'd have made some 'art' piece.
661. Time for serious art piece. Piece.
693. Unfinished piece No. 5.
694. Unfinished piece No. 6.
761. Institute of Laughable Art.
762. The Society for Making Art Deadly Serious, piece.
910. Art as magic, as magic, piece.
998. 998th piece, a look at the last 998 pieces piece/work.

Las Meninas (after Michel Foucault); King for a day (2015), GCGCA(i)