Combining works from the 1990s with new production this exhibition explores the way groups develop their ideas in cohesion and tension with the individual.

Drawing on anthropologist Mary Douglas’s interpretations of sociologist Ludwik Fleck, Liam Gillick juxtaposes works that were produced in collective environments in the 1990s with new structures and a film produced alone. As such, the exhibition reflects on the contradictions that arise between the individual and the group in relation to the production of art.

The title of the exhibition refers to Fleck and Douglas’s investigation of the way a thought style links group members via their shared ideas, how they communicate and the methods they employ. These ideas affect the art’s subjectivity and are reflected in a series of new text works.

The exhibition comprises three rooms that are titled The Thought Style Meets The Thought Collective A, B and C respectively. In room 1, A broadcast from 1887 on the Subject of our Time – originally produced in 1996, involves a radio broadcast directed towards a utopian community. The audio content is taken from Edward Bellamy’s book Looking Backward, 1887 – which includes an account of a radio broadcast before the invention of the medium.

Also included in the exhibition is a deployment of the work, When Do We Need More Tractors? Five Plans, 1999 – where certain specific actions are outlined by the artist for others to fulfill. This work is combined with a new series of Discussion Platforms, a new neon work titled X Came to Know P, 2015 and a new film produced by the artist Margin Time 2 (The Heavenly Lagoon), 2013.