Terracotta Warriors in the Living Room: Levels of authenticity in four exhibitions. I have been familiar with the Chinese army of Terracotta Warriors for the past twenty years, because my father was so moved by them after seeing an exhibition in 1987, that he modelled his own versions. Dad was the Chief Executive of the…
Category: Cities
Heritage cities and authentiicity
2016 -The Year of (in) authenticity
2016 has been the year of (in) authenticity. Politicians have been described as authentic because they are plain-speaking and inauthentic because they are conducting ‘post-truth’ campaigns, the TV programmes Westworld and Humans blur ideas of real and fake, the words authentic, artisan and heritage are the adjectives of choice describing everything from cities, to…
Gilding the goldfish: The painted past
Other People’s Places: New York in the 70’s, The Galapagos Islands, a flat above a butcher’s on Garrett Lane in the early 1990’s, where we used to live. I went to the Defining Beauty Exhibition at the British Museum. It reminded me that classical statues were once decorated with paint, material and, in some cases,…
Salve Sassenach – An Outlander in Rome
Other People’s Places mentioned in conversation today: A Pimm’s Party starting at 6pm. A Fashion Bermuda Triangle in a bedroom which mysteriously hides things then spits them back out. Willesborough in Ashford. I have recently become addicted to Outlander. Dr Ken Fox and I have been researching Seriality in Breaking Bad and I check all…
Museum Gift Shops 