I think I need to check out my capacity for dark nationalist feelings next time I'm in Cambridge. Do you think I may have been rendered immune to the dark powers of the Haywain through exposure to it in quite a different context? In the manner of the immune system encountering the epitope early enough in life for it to be included as self rather than non-self? Let me explain. My kind grandmother who lived in the countryside outside Copenhagen always served us tea in a teapot and cups decorated with the Constable painting, a transfer rather than anything hand painted obviously. I think this has equipped me very well to face the Fitzwilliam Museum with enough resilience to avoid becoming entirely focused on stopping small boats or acquiring a white van. If it were to turn me into a fierce protector of local culture and mill ponds it might be the local Mocksfordshire ones I suppose. Essentially I would be concerned that constructing a set of appropriate warnings would be hard to get right given the hopefully diverse audience. A Flemish still life of the spoils of the hunt would come with a warning to meat eaters that it could lead to unwanted hunger and to vegans that it could be nauseating and morally reprehensible. The lion and the bees? Even trickier. Am I alone in remembering the scene in the Full Monty about what not to think about when facing an audience in your birthday suit? So to recap - even assuming we really want to label like this would we be able to do it in an appropriate, inclusive and culturally sensible way do you think?
Thank you for reading & your thoughtful comments! It’s great to get such extensive comments on this newsletter. We may be in a Sunil position regarding the Haywain. When I was a teenager I lived with my grandparents for a long time. Being working class & British, they had to have a copy over the fire. It was the law. That may have inoculated me against the pernicious effects of landscape art: certainly I escaped the National Gallery with is dangerous phalanx of Turners last year without immediately running off to put barbed wire round Dover. Do you think that putting warnings on art is at all desirable? I tend to be of the mind that it ought to be at least a little disturbing, or ’challenging’. But even if we did, you make it quite clear that warnings just aren’t going to work unless they are tailored to each individual gallery visitor. And what about paintings that are hung a bit high in the wall or a bit low? Is that unfair to visitors who are particularly short, or tall? The criteria become a bit nonsensical. Perhaps we should employ a white rabbit with a fob watch to guide all visitors inside.
I think I need to check out my capacity for dark nationalist feelings next time I'm in Cambridge. Do you think I may have been rendered immune to the dark powers of the Haywain through exposure to it in quite a different context? In the manner of the immune system encountering the epitope early enough in life for it to be included as self rather than non-self? Let me explain. My kind grandmother who lived in the countryside outside Copenhagen always served us tea in a teapot and cups decorated with the Constable painting, a transfer rather than anything hand painted obviously. I think this has equipped me very well to face the Fitzwilliam Museum with enough resilience to avoid becoming entirely focused on stopping small boats or acquiring a white van. If it were to turn me into a fierce protector of local culture and mill ponds it might be the local Mocksfordshire ones I suppose. Essentially I would be concerned that constructing a set of appropriate warnings would be hard to get right given the hopefully diverse audience. A Flemish still life of the spoils of the hunt would come with a warning to meat eaters that it could lead to unwanted hunger and to vegans that it could be nauseating and morally reprehensible. The lion and the bees? Even trickier. Am I alone in remembering the scene in the Full Monty about what not to think about when facing an audience in your birthday suit? So to recap - even assuming we really want to label like this would we be able to do it in an appropriate, inclusive and culturally sensible way do you think?
Thank you for reading & your thoughtful comments! It’s great to get such extensive comments on this newsletter. We may be in a Sunil position regarding the Haywain. When I was a teenager I lived with my grandparents for a long time. Being working class & British, they had to have a copy over the fire. It was the law. That may have inoculated me against the pernicious effects of landscape art: certainly I escaped the National Gallery with is dangerous phalanx of Turners last year without immediately running off to put barbed wire round Dover. Do you think that putting warnings on art is at all desirable? I tend to be of the mind that it ought to be at least a little disturbing, or ’challenging’. But even if we did, you make it quite clear that warnings just aren’t going to work unless they are tailored to each individual gallery visitor. And what about paintings that are hung a bit high in the wall or a bit low? Is that unfair to visitors who are particularly short, or tall? The criteria become a bit nonsensical. Perhaps we should employ a white rabbit with a fob watch to guide all visitors inside.