Ian Hamilton Finlay

The World Has Been Empty Since the Romans

1985

Bath stone, steel chain
L 735 cm
unique

Description

These slabs of stone, resembling fragments from a Roman archaeological site, with their carefully inscribed words in classical letter-form, are a very bleak statement. Made in collaboration with a stone mason, the poem sets up trails of thoughts about European culture. But is this rhetoric? Is it a metaphor? Finlay proposes the right sentiment through the most appropriate medium, and we believe that at Hat Hill, close to evidence of Roman occupation, the sculpture has found its most fitting place.

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