Sycamore Gap — a rhetoric of remains

Landscape with monument. [Link] [Link] One of the most photographed trees in the UK, standing alongside Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, east of Steel Rigg by Milecastle 39, in the northern borders of the Roman Empire. October 2020. In the early hours of September 28, 2023, the tree was cut down by Daniel Graham and Adam…

Don Lavigne — archaeological epigram

Epigram — a concept Don Lavigne was on campus last Friday (Nov 21) to give what was a fascinating talk about ancient Greek epigram — short texts inscribed on something, typically a stone, base, offering, tomb, votive dedication, statue. Don didn’t offer a philological account of epigrams simply as texts. Instead he explored a media…

Robert Longo’s archaeological sensibility

An exhibition of works by Robert Longo at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art [Link]. Raft at Sea 2016-17 Longo traces photographs in charcoal. Large scale charcoal drawings. Of photographs. Blow-ups — upscaled photographs — traced projections. Iceberg for C.D.F (Caspar David Friedrich), 2015-16; The Western Wall, 2011 (Jerusalem) Stand back and you see the BIG…

Speculative author

Hans Christian Andersen at Tivoli Amusement Park, Copenhagen [Link]. August 10 – here’s his desk at the H.C. Andersen Hus in Odense [Link]. The museum/center/garden/experience is remarkable tribute to the extraordinary range of his work. I had not appreciated his sophistication – fabulation, science fiction, psychology, collage, papercuts, letter writing …