TODAY

Gilbert & George’s most recent pictures were made especially for this exhibition. The monumental Bomb represents London in a new age of terror. Each panel reproduces a headline board advertising the Evening Standard newspaper, which the artists have collected over the last year or so. As an evening paper, the Standard is regularly sold on the street and outside tube stations, and its headlines grab the eye of every passerby, becoming part of the visual fabric of the city that has so consistently fascinated the artists. The headlines are arranged according to key words, such as “terror,” “bomber,” or “bomb,” providing a lexicon for our contemporary fears and anxieties. The mirrored faces of the artists seem to embody the queasy anxiety that pervades life in the wake of the London bombs of July 2005. The pictures are marked with other disconcerting details, such as the seeds from London plane trees, which resemble bomblets.

Excerpt adapted from text by Simon Bolitho. Reprinted with permission.

 

 

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