The Arab Spring

Events in the Arab world are being covered by the Western media more extensively than ever before and are being talked about positively in a fashion that is unprecedented.

FRONTLINE: A Year of Journalism and Conflict, Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, Westminster, WC2R

Before, when anything Muslim or Middle Eastern or Arab was reported on, it was almost always with a heavy negative connotation.

FRONTLINE: A Year of Journalism and Conflict, Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, Westminster, WC2R

Now, during this Arab spring, this has ceased to be the case.

FRONTLINE: A Year of Journalism and Conflict, Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, Westminster, WC2R

An area that was a byword for political stagnation is witnessing a rapid transformation that has caught the attention of the world.

FRONTLINE: A Year of Journalism and Conflict, Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, Westminster, WC2R

Rashid Khalidi’s The Arab Spring, The Nation (2011)

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)

Shelter

No. The blues are because you’re getting fat and maybe it’s been raining too long.

Stephanie Imbeau's Shelter, Channel 4 Headquarters, Horseferry Road, Westminster, SW1P

You’re just sad, that’s all.

From Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958)