B.
Against Amnesia
Behind the scenes
When in doubt, I reach for the work of walker, watcher, landscape writer, polymath and maverick intellectual Rebecca Solnit.
Quoted from 'The Ruins of Memory' in Mark Klett's After the Ruins, newly arrived in the Gallery library.
Artist unknown The Colosseum, Rome. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased with assistance from Ballantyne Bequest 1971
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Here are some words of hers – the italicised ones especially – that I'd like to see transmitted straight to the frontal lobe of anyone contemplating demolition and development in this city of ever-multiplying gaps.
'Ruins stand as reminders. Memory is always incomplete, always imperfect, always falling into ruin; but material ruins themselves, like other traces, are treasures: our links to what came before, our guide to situating ourselves in a landscape of time. To erase the ruins is to erase the visible public triggers of memory; a city without ruins and traces of age is like a mind without memories.'
Related
Collection
Gaspar van Wittel The Colosseum seen from the Southeast
Dutch-born Gaspar van Wittel moved to Rome at about twenty-two in 1674 and spent the rest of his life in Italy. Known there as Vanvitelli, he became pivotal in the development of the genre of painting known as veduta, topographical scenes created as high-quality mementoes for visitors to Italy on ‘The Grand Tour’.
(Out of Time, 23 September 2023 – 28 April 2024)
Gaspar van Wittel is also known by the italianised version of his name, Vanvitelli