What if this present were the World’s last night? is part of an ongoing series finding inspiration in philosophical texts. Quoting John Donne’s Divine Poems of 1663, the work is enframed by a binary code translation of John Ruskin’s line from Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849: ‘When we build let us think that it is forever’. Ruskin’s words translated into this form become a cryptic code of black and raised coloured squares. Through its text and image this art work is specifically connected to the local area: both Donne and Ruskin lived in Camberwell and the background of the piece shows an abstracted view of London from One Tree Hill, adjacent to Camberwell New Cemetery.
Mark Titchner
What if this present were the World's last night?, 2005
Mark Titchner, What if this present were the World's last night?, 2005