On the return of the past: document, memory, and archive. Katie Pearl (theatre director and professor at Wesleyan – see her extraordinary work here – [Link]) recently got in touch asking about the performance in Wales in 1995 of Tri Bywyd (translation – Three Lives), a work of theatre/archaeology by arts company Brith Gof. Specifically…
Author: Michael Shanks
a mirror and a bowl
The giant silver bowl in Rotterdam, the new collections open storage depot for Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, now has its mirror skin within which one may see all kind of wonders. Here below are Peter Delpeut (novelist), Winy Maas (architect), and Sjarel Ex (director) with thoughts on viewing the landscape/cityscape by means of a giant…
Cardiff 1919 – theatre/archaeology
A team from National Theatre Wales, featuring Kyle Legall and Mike Pearson, have just published a powerful work of theatre/archaeology* in their series Storm, about the race riots in Cardiff Wales in 1919. It takes the form of a graphic novel with animated video and voice over. A timely intervention. https://www.cardiff1919.wales – [Link] *theatre/archaeology –…
Ruins – Josef Koudelka
Thoughts on the universality and valency of ruination. With a comment about the toppling of statues of erstwhile heroes. A couple of months ago Alain Schnapp was talking with me about his new book, a universal history of ruins, an exploration of an archaeological sensibility that takes us back to antiquity [Link]. I have just…
Dryburgh
Project : So werd ich Todten-Kopff ein Englisch Antlitz seyn – [Link] Marta Pilarska (Edinburgh) has discovered a favorite place of mine – Dryburgh Abbey, Scottish borders, a landscaped ruin. Here are a couple of headstones, mid eighteenth century, converted by Marta into 3D models. The textures are very good, as is being able to…
et in Arcadia ego (3)
Project concept: et in Arcadia ego – [Link] Ravens’ Pike, Boonville, California. (Thanks to Rich Green for the loan of his remarkable Leica Monochrom)