Document: Mhairi McVicar

Presented at Past in the Present, Glasgow School of Art, October 2007

RE-EVALUATING FOUNDATIONS: LOOKING FORWARDS BY LOOKING BACKWARDS

At Caruso St John’s Walsall New Art Gallery, rejection of the certainty of twentieth century doctrines permits inventive historical referencing. ‘We feel more comfortable than we once did to follow these traditions quite closely’1 writes Adam Caruso. Fredric Jameson, meanwhile, suggests; ‘We have begun in the last few years to witness phenomena of a very different order, phenomena that suggest the return to and the re-establishment of all kinds of old things, rather than their wholesale liquidation.

This paper argues that twentieth century constraints which prohibited critical referencing of the past are challenged by recent writings which deny an unequivocally defined ‘way forward.’ This denial permits mediation between past and present; emerging from critical writings which re-evaluate foundations, this stance offers a progressive strategy out of the materials of tradition and nostalgia.

Photo credit: New Art Gallery, Walsall. Architects: Caruso St John. Photo: Mhairi McVicar.