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The Magpie Index is a single-screen high-definition video artwork by artist Richard Grayson, focusing on legendary singer-songwriter Roy Harper, and is Grayson’s third exhibition at Matt’s Gallery.

In The Magpie Index Roy Harper delivers a series of monologues to camera. Each section addresses a different aspect of his work, his philosophy and history, covering the counter culture; religion and superstition; ornithology; nature and the environment; political engagement and the end of politics as well as Harper’s experiences in the music world and the importance of changing light bulbs.

Roy Harper released his first record, Sophisticated Beggar in 1966 and was revered by contemporaries such as Led Zeppelin for his integrity and the uncompromising way he followed the dictates of his conscience rather than the prerogatives of the music business, ‘Hats off to Harper’ on Led Zeppelin III acknowledged this. He was resident at the legendary Les Cousins Folk club in Soho in the early sixties and became a staple of Free Festivals in the late sixties and seventies. He has worked with musicians such as Jimmy Page, Dave Gilmour, Keith Moon, and Kate Bush, who describes him as ‘one of the greatest of English song writers’. His recent solo concert at the Royal Festival Hall in November was described as ‘historic’ by the Guardian, and by the Telegraph as ‘a bright burning of never more vital talent, full of pure, deep emotions and devastating performances of musical brilliance.’

His work and approaches are resolutely independent and informed by a strong personal and ethical vision. He has used his songs and writings to propose alternative histories of culture, launch attacks on establishment positions and to critique social, political and religious operations.

The Magpie Index explores the ways that a fierce personal vision developed and how it shaped and expressed ideas of the ‘alternative culture’ of the sixties and seventies where music was a central platform for debate. The work moves from the biographical into the social and cultural spheres to present this individual voice in ways that allude to the traditions of the radical non-conformist, the visionary and the outsider.

The Magpie Index extends Grayson’s interest in alternative and heterodox understandings, the operations of belief and unorthodox modellings of the world and its histories, and his focus on the sites of culture and music as places where subjective readings and understandings are translated into wider societal and political spheres.

In memory of Alan Haydon (1949–2011).

The Magpie Index was commissioned by Locus+ and the De La Warr Pavilion. It debuted at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, as part of Richard Grayson’s solo exhibition that opened in January 2010. Matt’s Gallery is generously supported by Arts Council England.

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Biography
Born 1958 Morecambe, England. Lives and works in London. Selected Solo Exhibitions 2011 The Objectivist Studio Alma Enterprises London; The Golden Space City of God Southampton City At Gallery; Richard Grayson KunstMuseum Des Kantons Thurgau Switzerland 2010 The Magpie Index. Baltic Gallery Newcastle upon Tyne; Richard Grayson Yuill/Crowley Gallery Sydney Australia; Richard Grayson: A Five Year Retrospective De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill 2009 The Golden Space City of God Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, New Zealand; The Golden Space City of God. Matt’s Gallery London. 2006 Suspicious Fires, Yuill/Crowley Gallery, Sydney 2005 Intelligence, Matt’s Gallery, London 2004 Messiah, Matt’s Gallery, London and Yuill/Crowley Gallery, Sydney; The Messiah, Kunstlerhaus Gethanien, Berlin 2002 A Diary, A History, A Walk up the Hill, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide; Ways the World Ends, Yuill/Crowley Gallery, Sydney 2000 Negative Space (things I don’t understand), Yuill/Crowley Gallery, Sydney 1999 1000 accidents/Ahistoryofreading, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Ahistoryofreading Artspace, Sydney 1998 A Famous Struggle/VariousThings Explained, Contemporary Art Centre, Adelaide Selected Group Exhibitions 2011 Seeing in the Dark, Circa Newcastle upon Tyne; This is What I Do, Metro Arts Brisbane Australia; Ffilm 3, Oriel Gelf Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, Wales 2010 Sydney Biennial, Australia; The Beauty of Distance, Film and Video, The Russian Club Gallery, London, England 2009 Curators Choice Tracy Williams Gallery New York USA ; Choral Visual, Casa de la Cultura, Buenos Aires, Argentina; International Artist in Residence: New Works 09.01. curated by Trevor Smith at Artpace, San Antonio, Texas 2008 Obscurum Obscurantis Tallin Arthoone, Estonia 2007 A Number of Worlds Resembling Our Own Smart Project Space, Amsterdam; Navigations Per Forma Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin 2006 Happy Believers 7th Werkleitz Biennial, Halle Germany 2005 Art Unlimited Basel; Project 3 CACSA Adelaide; Electric Renaissance Culture-Centre Halle; Gott sehen - Das Überirdische als Thema derZeitgenössischen Kunst Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen, Switzerland 2004 Cartographies Performance Space, Sydney; Planet B Magazin 4 Vorarlberger Kunstverein and Bregenzer Kunstverein, Bregenz Selected Exhibitions as Curator 2010 Polytechnic, Raven Row Gallery London 2007 Scary Movie Contemporary Art Centre, Adelaide 2006 This Will Not Happen Without You (Basement to Locus 1979 - 2007) (Arts Council touring exhibition) John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle and Belfast University; A Secret Service (Hayward Gallery touring exhibition) Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill and The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester 2002 (The World May Be) Sydney Biennale, Fantastic Sydney, Australia

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