Rodinsky’s Room

This was an unrequired story. My feeling now is that the routines I listened to were the ones I solicited.

19 Princelet Street, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, E1

I was looking for confirmations and extensions of what I already knew.

Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, E1

Rodinsky was an empty space, a lacuna; that which was not to be uncovered something sealed and forgotten.

19 Princelet Street, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, E1

This was the period, the seventies between his disappearance and the breaking open the attic room. He wasn’t visible or invisible. He had neither presence nor absence.

Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, E1

His story hadn’t been formulated.

Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair's Rodinsky's Room (1999)

From Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair’s Rodinsky’s Room (1999)

The World Set Free

In the map of nearly every country of the world three or four more red circles, a score of miles in diameter, mark the position of the dying atomic bombs…

Mike Nelson's Coral Reef, Tate Britain, Pimlico, Westminster, SW1P

…and the death areas that men have been forced to abandon around them.

Mike Nelson's Coral Reef, Tate Britain, Pimlico, Westminster, SW1P

Within these areas perished museums, cathedrals, palaces, libraries, galleries of masterpieces…

Mike Nelson's Coral Reef, Tate Britain, Pimlico, Westminster, SW1P

…and a vast accumulation of human achievement, whose charred remains lie buried…

Mike Nelson's Coral Reef, Tate Britain, Pimlico, Westminster, SW1P

…a legacy of curious material that only future generations may hope to examine.

Mike Nelson's Coral Reef, Tate Britain, Pimlico, Westminster, SW1P

From HG Wells’ The World Set Free (1914)

The Actor

Enthusiastic was the crowd
That hailed him with delight;
The wine was bright, the laughter loud
And glorious the night.

London Palladium, Argyll Street, Westminster, W1F

But when at dawn he drove away
With echo of their cheer,
To where his little daughter lay,
Then he knew – Fear.

London Palladium, Argyll Street, Westminster, W1F

From Robert W. Service’s The Actor