at the moment. artist engaged in meeting deadlines, some small like writing a review of hogarth exhibition for art in america and some large like finishing the designs for westminster abbey: a memorial to the fallen in recent follies of war... though don't mention the war is still the watchword since this is a conflict memorial, a project which since first embarked on many months ago has had its up and downs, delays and disputes, revisions and rerevisions during which time another few dozen poor sods have met their end in distant and desert places. Tacitus still has the last word on such ventures: - when they have created a wasteland they call it peace.
1 comment:
I thought I'd look up the source of the quotation, and Tacitus is quoting Calgacus, a Caledonian chieftain, on the Romans ("They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace"). So similar in tone to various other quotable chiefs in North America ("Only when the last tree has died, and the last river been poisoned, and the last fish been caught, will we realise we cannot eat money" etc.), though Tacitus/Calgacus have yet to end up on a t-shirt ...
[N.B. According to Wikipedia: "His name can be as interpreted as Celtic *calg-ac-os, 'possessing a blade' or 'possessing a penis'", neither of which seems especially distinctive.]
Post a Comment