4. architecture of power in the uk. 2

7/28/2019 4. Architecture of Power in the UK. 2

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Cultural Icons: The Poetics andPolitics of Power/Culture


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Welsh English

What do you associate Caernarfon Castle(in north Wales) with?


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Caernarvon is architecturally one of the most impressive of all of the castles in

Wales. Its [sic] defensive capabilities were not as overt or as powerful as thoseof Edward Is other castles such as Harlech and Beaumaris (which indicate thepinnacle of castle building and defenses in Britain), but Caernarvon was insteadintended as a seat of power and as a symbol of English dominance over thesubdued Welsh (Daniel Mersey).

As with all of the castles of Edwards Iron Ring, Caernarvon [Castle] was built

on the shoreline (supplies came by sea due to the Welsh prowess in convoyambush over land). At Caernarvon, Edward also built a town, destroying theoriginal Welsh settlement beforehand (DM).

The castle of Edward I at Caernarvon succeeded first a Roman fort, and then aNorman motte and bailey built by Hugh of Avranches around 1090. Thismotte was incorporated into the Edwardian castle, but was destroyed around

1870. The Welsh retook the original motte in 1115 and retained control untilEdwards invasion and colonization in 1283. The sites previous history alsodemonstrates the strategic importance of the site (DM).

Edward wanted to create a nucleus of English influence in this area, which waspreviously so rich in Welsh tradition and anti-English feeling. He also wished tocreate Caernarvon as the capital of a new dominion hence the incorporation

of a town and market into the strong walls of the site (DM).


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Building phases (Daniel Mersey):

1. 128392 (expenditure: 12,000):Architect: Master James of St George (arenowned castle architect). Material for the building of the castle, town, walls,gates and important quay were ferried in by sea. All of the initial building tookplace as a single operation, started in the summer of 1283. The first recordedentry of work (June 24th) was on the new castles ditch, separating the castle fromfortified town. Next, as with most castles built in enemy territory, a woodenbarricade was erected to defend the building works from attack; labourers began

to cut the moat, which also supplied the rock for the walls (twenty foot thick attheir base). The Welsh township was demolished at this time. The only tower ofthe castle completed was the Eagle Tower; the main priority was to make the sitedefensible,before later adding the impressive architecture of dominions newcapital. The castle and town walls were substantially completed by late 1285, yetthe north wall of the castle had no wall and was instead defended by the town

walls and a wide rock cut ditch.2. 12951330 (expenditure: 13,000): Madog ap Llywelyn overran the castle

through the ditch in his revolt of 1294, burning part of the castle and damagingthe town walls. The English retook the castle next summer, and orders were givento make the castle defendable again by 11th Nov. 1295. The town walls and castlewere repaired; the north wall of the castle, with the Kings Gate (never fullycompleted), was finally added.


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The castle was intended as the capital of a new dominion and a palace for thedynasty of the new Prince of Wales. It was capable of accommodating thehousehold of the kings eldest son (created Prince of Wales under Edward I), with

his council, family and guests also in attendance.

The Eagle Tower, Queens Tower, Chamberlain Tower and Black Tower all wereaccommodation towers built on several storeys, mostly with self containedchapels on each storey (indicative of high status accommodation). Two hallsexisted the Great Hall and a hall in the Kings Tower.

In addition, the castle also permanently housed a constable, watchmen and the

garrison.

Accommodation (Daniel Mersey):


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At Caernarfon Edward I commissioned a stronghold to give substance to thetradition linking Caernarfon with imperial Rome. The king must have knownthat the Roman fort of Segontium, lying just above the modern town, wasinseparably associated in legend with Magnus Maximus, the usurper emperor.The walls were given a prominent patterning with bands of different coloredstone. Moreover, the towers were constructed in an angular fashion ratherthan the more usual rounded form of Conwy or Beaumaris (Daniel Mersey).

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Edward I was drawing uponsymbolism, and turned for inspiration to the great city of Constantinople.There, in the eastern successor to Rome and one of the wonders of the ancientworld, the 5th-century walls bear a striking resemblance to this late 13th-

century castle. Overall, the king was creating a fitting building to be a

new royal residence, a palace, intended to be the seat of governmentfor the newly-formed shire counties of north Wales. Everywhere,strength and majesty are evident in its walls and turrets. (DM)

Do Daniel Merseys final 2 sentences remind you of any other politicaldevelopments in what is now the UK, which now rank as cultural

icons and are popular tourist attractions?


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The keep of Norwich Castle

(c. 10941110)

The castle was founded by William the Conqueror (c. 1067), yetwork began on the stone keep in 1094 by William (Rufus) II,his son. The castle (completed 1121) was designed to be a royal

palace rather than a fortification; however, no Norman kingsever lived in it. It was used as a gaol (12201887) before thecity of Norwich bought it to be used as a museum (opened in1895; now Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery).

The cathedral was originally built in the style of the 11th-12th centuries: the Romanesque

also known in Britain as the Norman style; fire destruction and other incidents over thecenturies led to restoration work being carried out in the new style: the Gothic


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The keep of Norwich Castle

(c. 10941110)

1091: Herbert de Losinga (prior of Fcamp inNormandy) appointed bishop of Thetfordthrough simony (1,000 paid to king William(Rufus) II after the death of bishop WilliamBeaufai);

1094: Losinga transferred his see to Norwich(the urban centre of East Anglia) to build acathedral in penance for his simony, asrequested by pope Urban II royal/secularpower consolidated by religious power;

1096: cathedral foundation stone laid; 1101: consecration of the East End; 114045: completion of the cathedral;

1172: rioting between cathedral and cityNorwich Cathedral cloisters


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What do you know about Edinburgh? To what other UK or US cities would

you compare it and by what criteria? What is the iconic image of Edinburgh?

Capital past and present: the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle to thePalace of Holyroodhouse (since 2004: the Scottish Parliament too) via StGiles Kirk/Cathedral.

Cultural city (vs. Glasgow; Leeds, Manchester): the Edinburgh Festival; theEdinburgh Festival Fringe = the largest arts festival in the world and theobsession of the media (~ New York off-off Broadway vs. Hollywood); theRoyal Edinburgh Military Tattoo on the Castle Esplanade (August).

1997: Parliament devolution.

Artistic devolution? http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-

play-independence University city.

Tourist attraction (e.g. the Scotch Whisky Experience; EdinburghDungeons; the Royal Botanic Garden).

Coat of arms of the City of Edinburgh
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-play-independencehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-play-independencehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-play-independencehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-play-independencehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-play-independencehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-play-independencehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-play-independencehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-play-independencehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oct/24/scottish-theatre-play-independence


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Iconic image of Edinburgh Castle / Edinburgh(with the Ross Fountain in west Princes Street Gardens)

With over 1,25000 visitors per year EdinburghCastle is second only to the Tower of London asthe UKs most visited tourist attraction.(http://www.royal-mile.com/castle/castle_plan.html)


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Fireworks Concert, seen from Princes Street GardensFireworks Waterfall, part of the Fireworks Concertmarking the end of the Edinburgh Festival


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Founded as a monastery in 1128, the Palace ofHolyroodhouse inEdinburgh is The Queens official residence in Scotland. Situated at theend of the Royal Mile, the Palace of Holyroodhouse is closely associatedwith Scotlands turbulent past, including Mary, Queen of Scots, wholived here between 1561 and 1567. Successive kings and queens havemade the Palace of Holyroodhouse the premier royal residence in

Scotland.(http://www.royal.gov.uk/theroyalresidences/thepalaceofholyroodhouse/thepalaceofholyroodhouse.aspx)


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ScotlandsNational Cathedral

EdinburghParliament House

Parliament House (behind St Giles Kirk,centre of Old Town)Parliament House was the home of theScottish Parliament until 1707

Scottish Parliament(building opened 2004)


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Building (19992004) located in the immediate vicinityof the Palace of Holyroodhouse;here viewed from Salisbury Crags and Arthurs Seat (withCalton Hill monument in the background centre)

Nelsons Monument

(180715)on Calton Hill

The National Monument of Scotland (182629), the

memorial to the Scottish soldiers and sailors who diedfighting in the Napoleonic Wars


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Building (19992004; arch.Enric Miralles) located in theimmediate vicinity of thePalace of Holyroodhouse

1 Public Entrance 2 Plaza3 Pond 4 Press Tower5 Debating Chamber6 Tower one 7 Tower two8 Tower three 9 Tower four10 Tower five, Cannongate

Bldg. 11 Main Staircase12 MSPs Entrance 13 Lobby14 Garden 15 QueensberyHouse 16 MSP building17 Turf roof 18 Carpark andvehicular entrance19 Landscaped park

Queensberry House (red tiles; 17th century) between the MSPOffice blockat the back of the Parliament complex (extreme left)and the Tower and Canongate Buildings at the front (in theforeground), which house the debating chamber and committeerooms

S tti h P li t

MSP ffi b ildi th fi t i i i f


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Scottish ParliamentGarden Lobby

Scottish Parliament, MSP office building: the first iconic image ofHolyrood

Bay windows inspired by Henry Raeburns The Skating Minister (c. 1795)

The Scottish Parliament complex incorporates distinctive Scottish flourishes in eachdetail from thistle doorknockers to an 1815 copy of the Declaration ofArbroath, the formal document recognising Scotlands independence fromEngland in Europe which was signed in 1324. A celebration of Scotlands literaryhistory can be seen in the 26 quotations carved into the facade of the CanongateBuildingwhich includes well-loved pieces of poetry and quotes. During summer recessthe building hosts the Festival of Politics which combines the worlds of politics, media

and the arts to draw a wide variety of participants.(http://www.edinburgh.org/see-do/free-attractions/parliament)


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View of Edinburgh Castle from the Scott Monument on PrincesStreet: East Princes Street Gardens (in the foreground), St MarysCathedral and the Caledonian Hotel (at the farther street end); on TheMound (in the centre):The National Gallery of Scotland & The Royal Scottish Academy (artexhibitions)


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architect George MeikleKemp (d. 1844);

sculptor John Steell restoration: LDN Architects location: south side of

Princes Street (roughlyopposite Jenners (1838))

Sir Walter Scott (17711832) made a keycontribution to Scottish literature and is oftenregarded in the east of Scotland as Scotlandsmost famous writer as opposed to RobertBurns, certainly there is a lot of pride in his worknotably in Edinburgh and the Borders.(http://www.edinburgharchitecture.co.uk/scott_monument.htm)

Belfasts giant Harland & Wolff [yellow] cranes


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BELFASTCity Hall seen from the Belfast Eye

(Oct. 2007)

Belfast s giant Harland & Wolff [yellow] craneshave a new rival for skyline supremacy followingthe opening last month [Oct. 2007] of a 60-metre-high London Eye-style big wheel. TheWheel of Belfast stands in the grounds of thelandmark City Hall and looks set to become a

major tourist attraction, as well as cashing in onits proximity to the citys main shopping areas asChristmas approaches.The wheel is currently scheduled to stay until March2008 but, with visitor numbers in its first week alreadysaid to have outstripped demand during the similarWheel of Manchesters opening period, its likely the

city council will seek to extend the necessary planningpermission until the end of 2008 at least.

Visitors pay 6 for a 15-minute ride duringwhich they can survey significant recent changesto the city such as the Titantic Quarter andLaganside developments, as well as longerstanding natural attractions like Belfast Lough

and the brooding Divis Mountain.The addition of the wheel to the cityscape marksanother stage in Belfasts reinvention as apopular city break destination. Having recentlybeen voted the second favourite UK city ofGuardian, Observer and Guardian Unlimitedreaders, such regeneration innovations seem tobe bearing fruit.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/nov/09/uk.belfast)


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On first seeing Parliament Buildings, Stormont, I thought for a few seconds that I had landed inBucharest, Romania, rather than in Belfast, Ireland.The architectural monstrosity, in the suburbs of Belfast, is reminiscent of the Parliament buildingsin Bucharest, commissioned by Romanian Dictator Ceaucescu in the 70swhen Romanias 22

million citizens were eking out a subsistence existence; even worse, in order to accommodate theornate pile, old Nick, a notorious megalomaniac, had acres of historic buildings razed to theground, and their habitants evicted.Does a tinystatelet like North Ireland (population 1.6 million) with high unemployment and arecord percentage of its population on invalidity benefit, really need such a gigantic building to runits affairs? Delusions of grandeur?Ceacescu would surely have approved ... But look what happened to him:-)Megalomania Rules OK, posted by Proinsias1946 , Brussels, Belgium (who visited it in Feb. 2013), onhttp://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g186470-d212495-Reviews-Stormont_Castle-Belfast_Northern_Ireland.html

Stormont Castle (home to the Northern Ireland Executive and the Office of the

First Minister and deputy First Minister), in the grounds of Stormont EstateBuilding normally closed to the general public.


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Belfast Castle (186270,Scottish baronial style),

located in the Cave Hill area ofnorth Belfast

In 1862, the third Marquis of Donegall, a

descendant of the Chichesters, decided to build anew castlewithin his deer park, situated on theside of Cave Hill in what is now north Belfast. Onhis death (1884), the castle and its estate passedto his son-in-law, Lord Ashley, the seventh Earlof Shaftesbury.The castle remained with the Shaftesbury familyuntil 1934, when it was presented to the City ofBelfast.

The original Belfast Castle was built by theNormans in Belfast city centre in the late12th century. Asecond castle, made of stone andtimber, was later constructed bySir ArthurChichester, Baron of Belfast, on the same site in1611; it burned down almost 100 years later.


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The two wings of the Palm House were completed in 1840, and were built byRichard Turner of Dublin, who later built the Great Palm House at Kew Gardens.


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(extension designed in 1968 by Francis Pym, so that the old building is made to fadeinto the new; Ulster Museum is the 2010 winner of The Art Fund Prize for

museums and galleries)


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Until a recent renovation corrected itslist, the Albert Memorial Clock wasBelfasts answer to Pisas leaningtower. Erected in 1865 in Gothic styleto commemorate Queen Victoriasconsort, Prince Albert, it was tall

enough at 113ft, to offer an excellentvantage point for at least oneenterprising sightseer to get a birds-eyeview of Titanics launch.Built on land reclaimed from the RiverLagan, the Albert Clock features a

statue of Prince Albert as well asornately carved crowned lions andfloral decorations.

http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/Albert-Memorial-Clock-Belfast-P3434Mid-19th century Gothic revival = romantic reappraisal of the past (history & aesthetics).

Saint Albert in the iconographic tradition of Catholic saints (niched statues on cathedral westfronts) and recalling the (originally 12) Eleanor crosses that marked the resting places of QueenEleanors (d. 1290, Harby, Nottinghamshire) funeral procession to Westminster Abbey.

LondonEleanor Cross(1863 replica

cross) at CharingCross


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LondonNational Gallery(founded 1824)

National Gallery official websitePaintings collection overviewhttp://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/collection-overview/
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/collection-overview/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/collection-overview/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/collection-overview/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/collection-overview/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/collection-overview/


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LondonThe National GalleryRoom 36: British portraits 17501800


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The first paintings in the National Gallery collection came from the banker andcollector John Julius Angerstein. They consisted of Italian works, including a largealtarpiece by Sebastiano del Piombo, The Raising of Lazarus, and fine examples ofthe Dutch, Flemish and English Schools.In 1823 the landscape painter and art collector, Sir George Beaumont (1753

1827), promised his collection of pictures to the nation, on the condition thatsuitable accommodation could be provided for their display and conservation.

The gift of the pictures was made in 1826. They went on display alongsideAngersteins pictures in Pall Mall until the whole collection was moved to TrafalgarSquare in 1838.Initially, the Gallery had no formal collection policy, and new pictures were

acquired according to the personal tastes of the Trustees. By the 1850s theTrustees were being criticised for neglecting to purchase works of the earlier

Italian Schools, then known as the Primitives.Following the reform of Gallery administration in 1855, the new Directortravelled throughout Europe to purchase works for the Gallery. In the 10 years thathe was Director, Sir Charles Eastlake ensured that the Gallerys collection ofItalian painting expanded and widened in scope to become one of the best in theworld.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/history/collection-history/


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In April 1824 the House of Commons agreed to pay 57,000 for the picture collection ofthe banker John Julius Angerstein. His 38 PICTURES WERE INTENDED TO FORM THECORE OF A NEW NATIONAL COLLECTION, FOR THE ENJOYMENT ANDEDUCATION OF ALL. The pictures were displayed atAngersteins house at 100 Pall Malluntil a dedicated gallery building was constructed.The size of the building Angersteins house was compared unfavourably with other

national art galleries, such as the Louvre in Paris, and ridiculed in the press.In 1831 Parliament agreed to construct a building for the National Gallery at Trafalgar

Square. There had been lengthy discussion about the best site for the Gallery, andTrafalgar Square was eventually chosen as it was considered to be at the very centre ofLondon. The new building finally opened in 1838.TRAFALGAR SQUARE COULD BE REACHED BY THE RICH DRIVING IN THEIR

CARRIAGES FROM THE WEST OF LONDON, AND ON FOOT BY THE POOR FROMTHE EAST END. It was felt that in this location the paintings could be enjoyed by allclasses in society.With a commitment to free admission, a central and accessible site, and extendedopening hours the Gallery has ensured that its collection can be enjoyed by the widestpublic possible, and not become the exclusive preserve of the privileged.From the outset the National Gallery has been committed to education. Students have

always been admitted to the Gallery to study the collection, and to make copies of thepictures. A vibrant education programme continues today for school children, students,and the general public. The programme includes free public lectures, tours and seminars.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/history/about-the-building/about-the-building

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/history/about-the-building/about-the-building/*/viewPage/2


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LondonThe National Gallery

The paintings displayed inAngersteins house (100 Pall Mall)A Party of Working Men at the NationalGallery in Trafalgar Square


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[Art critic John] Ruskins critique of such degraded aesthetic pleasure [viz. the

Romantic delight in the obscurity of the Old Masters palette, regarded as a form ofthe sublime] positions him firmly on the side of the [Victorian] sanitarycommissioners, who identified and vilified the low picturesque with every exposureof urban decay, dirt, and disease. Moreover, as early as the 1840s, theimprovements wrought by engineers and scientists ensured that the sanitation ofsublimityhad a more material and public locus than Ruskins erudite volumes of artcriticism [Modern Painters]: the walls of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

By 1844, just as Ruskins distaste for the Old Masters habit of generalization wasadopting sanitary discourse, the reverenced patina of age warming the surfaces ofthe ancient paintings was discovered to be common dirt, and public concern beganto be expressed about the health of Englands national art collection. In the pages ofthe Times, for example, a sketch by Punch rechristened the National Gallery theHospital for Decayed Pictures, lampooning the melancholy interest inspired by

so much impending decrepitude.... Whether to answer Punchs petition, or inresponse to changing cultural views about cleanliness, that same year a series ofpaintings in the National Gallery were indeed subjected to soap and water duringthe long vacation under the direction of... Sir Charles Eastlake. The public tooklittle notice of Eastlakes sanitary project until 1846, when four important paintings(among others) were cleaned during the summer months....

(Cleere 2002: 126)


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In 1847, a Select Committee on the Fine Arts was formed to investigate thecharges that the custodians of the National Gallery were wantonly flaying valuable

old pictures in the name of art restoration.... [The former Keeper of the NationalGallery, Sir Charles] Eastlake, [his current replacement, Thomas] Unwins, and alegion of experts were called upon over the next few years to testify about theprocess and effects of picture cleaning, and one after the other they responded, liketheir denouncers, with narratives of bodily health and disease. Yet rather thanbestowing a fanciful corporeality upon the oil paintings in order to argue for

picture cleaning as productive of aesthetic health, Eastlake and his supportersdefended the process of art restoration with the scientific findings of the sanitationengineers. Citing not only the polluted atmosphere of Trafalgar Square but alsothe constantly circulating human effluvia of gallery patrons, the National Gallerycustodians transformed an aesthetic debate about tone, color, and perspectiveinto a battle over ventilation, contamination, and the healthfulness of publicspaces. Almost immediately, the sublime brown tones, rich textures, and hazy

images so celebrated by Burke, Beaumont, and Cozens became little more than dirt,and THE MAIN ANXIETY OF COMMISSIONERS AND PARLIAMENTARIANSBECAME NOT THE FLAYING OF THE NATIONAL PICTURES, BUT THEPOSSIBILITY OF BUILDING A NEW NATIONAL GALLERY ON A HEALTHIERSPOT IN KENSINGTON-GORE AND LIMITING THE ACCESS OF THE DIRTIESTVISITORS.

(Cleere 2002: 127)


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As [Thomas] Unwins testified on 17 June 1850, the National Gallery wasnormally visited by more than three thousand people per day, and many ofthem did not come to look at the pictures: Mondays, for instance, are days

when a large number of the lower class of people assemble there, and menand women bring their families of children, children in arms, and a little trainof children around them and following them, and they are subject to all thelittle accidents that happen with children, and which are constantly visible onthe floors of the place. In addition to the unclean deposits left by working-class children, crowds of adults seeking shelter from bad weather, a pleasantplace to picnic, or simply a convenient gathering spot also purportedlycontaminated the National Gallery. These unruly crowds of working-classfamilies became sites of real anxiety for commissioners when scientistMichael Faraday, a respected authority on electricity and magnetism,

testified that the darkening of oil paintings could certainly be the result of thesulfurousvapours so abundant in London; moreover, that miasmata fromhuman perspiration, saliva, and ammoniacal exhalations were absolutelycapable of producing the greasy substance adhering to the surface of the OldMasters.

(Cleere 2002: 1278)


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This phobia about the unhealthy and contaminative viscosity of so manyworking-class bodies was not confined to government blue books. TheNational Collection will remain exposed as long as the indiscriminateadmission of the public is continued, declares C.R. Leslies 1855Handbook forYoung Painters: Why might not an office, not far from the Gallery, beestablished, at which tickets should only be given to those who can write theirnames? It may be safely affirmed that fine pictures can afford no instruction tothose who cannot. In an article that appeared in theArt-Journal, German artauthority Dr. Gustave Frederick Waagen agreed that the freedom of admissionto London galleries was indeed too permissive. In Berlin, Waagen explained,children under ten were not admitted to the national galleries, and museumofficials had the right to refuse entry to anyone whose dress or body was dirtyenough to create a smell obnoxious to the other visitors. One of the most

offensive practices in England, according to Waagen, was the transformation ofthe National Gallery into a large nursery, with wet nurses having regularlyencamped with their babies for hours altogether, suckling their charges inuncomfortable proximity to the pictures. Falling like vapour upon thepictures,Waagen writes, the multiple exhalations of this class of people posesa serious impediment to art preservation.

(Cleere 2002: 128)


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While the scapegoating of the working classes is the most obvious by-

product of sanitary reform in the National Gallery, the anathemization ofnonwhite races is a subtler, but nonetheless significant, effect. The

vocabulary in the Select Committee report casually invokes the specter ofrace when it repeatedly dubs the atmospheric incursion of soot within theNational Gallery the admission of blacks from the smoke. But outsidegovernment blue books, this metaphor explodes into more pointed racial

anxiety.... Although it is hardly unusual to find racial anxiety embeddedwithin a variety of writings about cleanliness and health, the impetus behindpicture cleaning at mid-century may have been particularly charged bygeneral alarm over the fact that dirty pictures necessarily meant darkenedhuman figures within pictures: white European subjects transformed bydecomposition and degradation into brown-skinned entities. For Ruskin,

such degradation even threatened to corrupt contemporary artists who triedto reproduce the foul browns of Titian, Caravaggio, and Spagnoletto, and hedubbed such artists the black slaves of painting. Paradoxically, cleaning the

working-class dirt from the national pictures implied the restoration of racialintegrity to the visual history of European culture, as well as whiteemancipation for the artists who traditionally learned their sense ofcolor

from dirty canvases. (Cleere 2002: 1289)


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These various threats to the purity of European art made the dirtiness of

working-class visitors to the gallery a profound source of anxiety for theFine Arts commissioners; ironically, however, the potential cleanliness ofthese same gallery patrons was also deeply troubling. According to thetestimony of Unwins, the deposit of soot, matter, and dust upon thepaintings had been exacerbated by the relatively recent construction of a setof tall chimneys located at the rear of the National Gallery: these chimneys

were connected with the waterworks that powered not only the fountain inTrafalgar Square but also the public baths and washhouses that working-class families were encouraged to use. The act of cleansing one source ofcontamination seemed only to create a more pernicious site of pollution, as

working-class effluvia reentered the atmosphere in the guise of steam-engine waste.... After the Great Exhibition of 1851, moreover, the danger of

working-class effluvia and industrial exhaust was virtually lost in the greaterthreat of unclean foreign respiration: We had the combined ammoniacalexhalations of Russia, Austria, France, Italy, Belgium, and Americacondensed upon the pictures, supervening upon our own NationalExhalations, trustee William Russell reported, and I think at the close ofthat year, the pictures became in as bad a state as it was possible forpictures to be in.

(Cleere 2002: 12930)


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In the context of such comprehensive xenophobia, most of the trusteesconcluded that the obvious solution was to move the National Gallery awayfrom the especially polluted Trafalgar Square to a less industrialized area ofLondon and, by implication, an area less frequented by the dirtiest classes of

visitors. In his own testimony to the Select Committee in 1857, Ruskindescribed the destructive effects of dirt and suggested that two galleries be

established: an easily accessible gallery for second-rate art and a gallery offthe beaten path for fine art, making it more difficult for crowds to descendupon the pictures by accident. Yet commissioners were ultimately unwillingto abandon the goal of social perfectibility through art education that had

been articulated by reformers from Prince Albert to Henry Cole and decidedto retain the Trafalgar Square location for its accessibility to the fullest tide

of human existence. Better ventilation for the National Gallery wasrecommended by the commissioners instead, as well as the use of glass tocover as many pictures as possible.

(Cleere 2002: 130)


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Cultural Icons: The Poetics andPolitics of Power/Culture

What is/are the connection/s betweenCULTURAL ICONS and the ARCHITECTUREOF POWER or the POETICS & POLITICS OFPOWER/CULTURE?


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Arthurs Seat seen from Edinburgh centre

View of Edinburgh from Arthurs Seat(Univ. of Edinburgh Pollock Halls ofResidence in the foreground at hill foot)

Edinburgh panorama from Arthurs Seat (2008)


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Kensal House was commissioned by the Gas Light and Coke Company,whose initial interest was to improve the design of gas-fired domesticappliances, until [Elizabeth] Denby persuaded them to develop aderelict industrial site in North Kensington, her main area of activity,as a full-scale demonstration of modern living (Powers 2007: 67).

Are the Kensal House Flats (1937), North Kensington, likely to ever become acultural icon of London? Why (not)?

Do urban sites of destitution ever become tourist attractions or cultural icons?

Are tourists encouraged to visit Londons East End? Is it because or in spite of the BBC1 soap operaEastEnders (1985)?

Is the dialect of Londons East End a form of cultural capital?

G.B. ShawsPygmalion (1913/1914), adapted into a successful Broadway musical,My Fair Lady (1956, Lerner and Loewe, based on the 1938Pygmalion film), andthen film (1964, dir. George Cukor), shows precisely the clash between the upperclass accent and ordinary Londoners cockney.


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Are you familiar with Michel de Certeaus phrase and the very practice ofwalking in the city in recent times?

An interest in walking in the city to explore its hidden past or (fictional)potential has been shown by a spate of artists and writers, concerning Britainalone by British film-maker Patrick Keillor (London, 1993), British writers PeterAckroyd (e.g. The Great Fire of London, 1982;Hawksmoor, 1985; TheClerkenwell Tales, 2003; The Lambs of London, 2004) and Iain Sinclair (e.g.poemLudHeat, 1975;Lights Out for the Territory, 1997; non-fictionLondonOrbital, 2002; non-fiction Ghost Milk: Calling Time on the Grand Project,

2011), and Canadian installation artist Janet Cardiff (e.g. audio walk / ArtangelCD The Missing Voice (Case Study B), 1999).

David Pinder has studied how artists and cultural practitioners [ofexpeditionary practices] have recently been using forms of urban exploration asa means of engaging with, and intervening in, cities ... within the wider contextof critical approaches to urban space which take it seriously as a sensuous realm

that is imagined, lived, performed and contested (Pinder 2005: 385), some ofwhich take place under the banner of psychogeography (386), although nolonger in its original situationist sense. Recently, various artists performances(largosensu) have been critiquing the privatization of public space and theassociated passivization of city dwellers and attempt to, through example,create a participatory model for citizens to take part in the physical and socialstructure of the environment we live in (Swoon Union [Brooklyn-based artistcollective, now Toyshop], qtd. in Pinder 2005: 385).


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Canadian artist Janet Cardiffs The Missing Voice (Case Study B) is a 40-minuteaudio walk (Artangel CD, 1999) which actively engages the audience in an aurally-

guided experience of Londons East End.From its starting-point at Whitechapel Library it [Janet Cardiffs voice on the CD]remains your guide for the next 40 minutes as you trace paths through eastLondon. The steps that make up this solitary walking tour are simultaneously realand imagined. The voice locates you within a fictionalized realm with charactersand routes that are articulated through the spaces of Whitechapel and Spitalfields,with stories that intersect with other stories, and that take form through your own

experiences, thoughts and memories as you wander the streets. The artworkliterally takes place in the streets, finding its meaning through its embodiedenaction. In effect it is performed or co-created by participants. It is the verycondition of the city to be plural with a multiplicity of stories, an inexhaustability[sic] of narratives, peopled with strangers and difference. Here the stories areelusive and fragmentary; thoughts and perceptions shift, threads and clues are

hinted at, dropped, circled round and pursued. Your senses are heightened. Theatmosphere remains taut and compelling as the walk unfolds with much that isreminiscent of detective fiction andfilm noir. There is indeed a sense ofparticipating in a book or a film as you are caught up in the narrative, both awareof its fabrication (with its directions, intercutting voices and bursts of music) and atthe same time immersed within the space-between it creates (between fiction andreality as the sounds merge with those around you, and you are on this pavement

with these buildings, these people and these passers-by). (Pinder 2001: 23)


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EleonoraAguiaris work addresses the concepts

of church and temple. On first visitingSpitalfields, she was struck by the dramaticfacade ofHawksmoors church: its strongpresence, its distance, silence and purity. Herown church plays with the Hawksmoor originaland, in using the colour red, she has created acontrast with its white facade, and a dialoguebetween the ideas of purity and passion.

(http://www.spitalfields.co.uk/about_art.php)

Spitalfields publicartEleonora Aguiari,Red Church


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Kenny Hunter,I Goat(2011)

Ali Grant,A Pear and a Fig


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Project cross section

COLLECTIONS

GALLERY


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Cleere, Eileen. 2002. Dirty Pictures: John Ruskin, ModernPainters, Victorian Sanitation of Fine Art.Representations 78(Spring): 11639.

De Certeau, Michel. 1984. Walking in the City. The Practice ofEveryday Life. Trans. Steven Rendall. Berkeley and Los Angeles:

University of California Press. 91110.Newland, Paul. 2008. The Cultural Construction of Londons East

End: Urban Iconography, Modernity and the Spatialisation ofEnglishness. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.

Pinder, David. 2001. Ghostly Footsteps: Voices, Memories and Walksin the City.Ecumene 8.1: 119.

Pinder, David. 2005. Arts of Urban Exploration. CulturalGeographies 12: 383411.

Powers, Alan. 2007.Britain.Modern Architectures in History series.London: Reaktion.

4. architecture of power in the uk. 2

Documents