The Arbury Doom

Wood, corrugated board, black enamel paint.
Approximate dimensions: 25”x60”

The Arbury Doom was made as part of an exhibition examining the Millennium in Arbury, Cambridge, England.

The piece grew out of a conversation between three related themes.

The Millennium as an object of fear:
Millennial fantasies of doom and judgment accompanied the first millennium, as well as the second. In the first, the fears were religious; our own fears are largely secular, but no less powerful for that.

Medieval Doom paintings:
The typical medieval English church contained a large image of the Last Judgment, or Doom, painted on the chancel arch. The paintings were whitewashed or destroyed at the Reformation. The Arbury Doom reconfigures this tradition in contemporary terms.

A Painting by Paul Klee:
The piece is a visual quotation of a Klee painting in the Metropolitan Museum: “Stricken City.”

These photographs record a day at Dungeness in Kent, where the Arbury Doom was taken for a walk in the world, and left on the shingle beach near Derek Jarman’s cottage and garden.