scenes which are recognisable — they are things you know from experience or from seeing pictures or reading about. but maybe they‘re not quite where you'd expect them to be. There‘s also that thrill and trepidation about entering a space that feels recently and unnervineg inhabited. ‘It‘s always interesting to transgress or trespass into someone else‘s personal territory] Nelson says. ‘You become interested in the rudimentary detail of what someone might have left behind.‘
In detail. Nelson is an obsessive. While it may look like a group of soldiers have suddenly upped and left their opium den or an old hobo has just tipped out of his hammock to head along the road. every little artifact and furnishing has been fastidiously thought out and placed. ‘The design on a formal level interests me — the surfaces. like a still life — the colours and textures. not only in terms of meaning but visually.‘ he says. ‘You get to the point where the objects know what they are and you’re so comfortable with their comfortableness that you don‘t actually have to question them. so it allows you to read the work in a much quieter sort of way.‘ Quieter and more unsettling with forces working on you that operate on a subconscious level.
The world has moved on an incredible distance since Nelson first created The Pumpkin l’u/ua'. Iraq hadn‘t lost l3.()()() of its citizens. Saddam Hussein was still shaven and defiant. a coastline of (‘uba hadn’t played indefinite host to prisoners without trial. Blair held a modicum of
‘WHEN THE AYATOLLAH CAME TO POWER PEOPLE COULDN'T LEAVE WITH CURRENCY SO THEY CAME WITH SUITCASES OF HEROIN'
trust and credibility. a leading scientist hadn‘t committed suicide. BBC controllers were sitting easy and the American army wasn‘t being investigated for accusations of torture.
It will be interesting to see how the Palace has stood the test of time. conceived in those early innocent days when only Afghanistan had felt America's aiipower. Quite possibly its force will only be intensified. And the housing of all of this in a symbol of true American idealism. customised to represent a Middle Iiastern field hospital. is deeply poignant.
‘You have these reservations about America and it‘s a bit of a contradiction] says Nelson. ‘But it’s an incredibly interesting place and one suspects that deep down in the heart of it there is something good. There is something good in the idea of America. it‘s just gone somewhat awiy.‘ This is a typical generosity of Mike Nelson — it’s what gives his work heart as well as all the deep intellectual and aesthetic choices behind his installations. It is this combination of qualities that has led the lad from Loughborough to make connections between junkies in his home town to political upheaval in the Middle liast and to carry on making global links from the small to the massive throughout his working life.
The Pumpkin Palace, 6 Market Street, opposite the City Art Centre, Tue 10 Aug-Sun 12 Sep, Tue-Sun, 11am-6pm, free.
We celebrate the great wheels of steel and their journeys through culture over the last 50 years.
The Electric KooI-Atd Acid Test Ken Kesey used the
, . ’ money he
9 i made
penning One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest to buy a bus that he called ‘Further'. He and Tom Wolfe turned it into a vehicle of acid experimentation, free love. travel and everything psychedelic. and Wolfe's book. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, secured its iconic status: ‘I make out a school bus . . . glowing orange. green, magenta. lavender, chlorine blue, every fluorescent pastel imaginable in thousands of designs. both large and small.‘ is. ‘ The
' Young Ones Taking Cliff to the cliff " “.i‘ — Rick, Viv, . ., ' Neil and
Mike
plunge downwards to their doom while merrily going on their summer hols. in the final episode in this cult 808 sitcom.
Partridge Family Bus
Ah. those golden days. Travellin’
about in the west coast sunshine. the Partridges rocked and rolled to the happy sounds of David Cassidy et al. Sadly. the 1957 Chevrolet bought from Al‘s Used Cars was found in the late 80s in a parking lot at Lucy's Tacos in East Los Angeles and has since been junked.
Popemobile
The most sacred mini bus in the whole wide world. The Pope's wheels cruise around the world taking Jean Paul II to his devoted followers. Protecting our Father as he spreads the word of God and warns against the evils of contraception behind divine bullet-proof glass. it's a nippy little number.
13—12 Aug 2004 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 13