A marvelous talk today at Stanford from Tim Flohr Sørensen (Copenhagen) about his project – Insignificants – [Link]. So much in a short report on such a beautifully simple experiment. Archaeologists often pride themselves on taking up what is overlooked, insignificant, discarded as irrelevant, detritus, mere traces, garbage. But what does this involve? What happens…
the shape of history
property, legacy, heritage, and a case for connoisseurship
Project Borderlands – [Link] More reflections on the entanglement of property and colonialism, taste and upbringing, class and inequality. [Link] [Link] [Link] In the early 1700s Admiral George Delaval, wealthy from a career in the Royal Navy, diplomatic service and from overseas investments, bought his old family estate from an impoverished cousin. He hired Sir…
Anselm Kiefer’s archaeological sensibility
Four new works from Anselm Kiefer go on exhibition at Gagosian Le Bourget, Paris, February 7. Marvelous manifestations of the archaeological imagination – [Link] What interests me is the transformation, not the monument. I don’t construct ruins, but I feel ruins are moments when things show themselves. A ruin is not a catastrophe. It is…
Confronting the Classics
Project Greece and Rome – [Link] Classics is the study of Ancient Greece and Rome. Or is it? Mary Beard, Cambridge University Professor, the popular “Oxbridge Don“ of the British media, deals with the question of the object of Classics in her book Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures, and Innovations (Liveright 2013). I had a…
automobility past and future
Project: Future of Mobility. [Link] Cars – Accelerating the Modern World An exhibition at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London Running into February 2020. The exhibition is one of the very first in a major international museum to acknowledge the extraordinary significance of the automobile, as its design, engineering, and significance evolve. There’s a…
second hand costume
Sheila Gwilliam amidst her extraordinary collection of vintage costume. I asked her which was her favorite. “Jack and Danny’s” – London Street, Bath UK – [Link]