Anselm Kiefer: a study of his artistic materials

The style of the contemporary German artist Anselm Kiefer is highly innovative and unconventional and is characterized by the use of diverse materials that he selects and combines according to the emotions that they stir in him. The conservation and preservation of works by Kiefer are particularly difficult tasks because of the heterogeneity and, in some cases, the incompatibility of the materials used; therefore, a thorough characterization is crucial before any intervention is considered. In this paper, we report the results of an investigation on a fragment from a multimaterial work and on samples from the paintings Bohemia Lies by the Sea and Die Größe Fracht. The large fragment was cut by the artist himself from a work in progress and is considered destitute of any artistic value; therefore, it was possible to sample it extensively. This fragment and the samples from the Die Größe Fracht and Bohemia Lies by the Sea paintings were analyzed by ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence imaging, fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This multitechnique approach allowed us to fully characterize and identify pigments, dyes, and organic components that reflect the diversity of the materials typically chosen by the artist. The results are evaluated in the context of the interview that Antonio Rava had with the Anselm Kiefer in 2000.     

Waste Not Want Not? Australia and the Politics of High-level Nuclear Waste

During 1999 and 2000, Australian governments rejected a proposal put forward by Pangea Resources to place an international high-level radioactive waste repository somewhere on the Australian continent. The decision was marked by tensions between competing political objectives, and was driven partly by an unusual alliance between pro-uranium mining governments and anti-nuclear non-government organisations (NGOs). The article begins by placing Australia's current nuclear policies in historical context, focusing on the stances taken by the major political parties. The second section briefly describes the Pangea proposal and the Australian response. The third section considers why Australia might have reacted differently. The fourth section critically reviews some of the reasons why the Pangea proposal elicited such hostility. Finally, the article discusses key policy barriers to the proposal, concluding that these are unlikely to disappear and that as a result Pangea and any other similar organisations would have little chance of pursuing their objectives in Australia.     

Immensity and Miniaturism: The Interplay of Scale and Sensory Experience in the Late Neolithic of the Maltese Islands

At first glance, the Late Neolithic (3600–2500 BC) of the Maltese Island archipelago in the central Mediterranean is a landscape of immensity dominated by megalithic stone structures. To the modern viewer, the Neolithic is materialized as magnitude across time and space. Archaeologically, it is denoted as the Temple Period, after the numerous megalithic structures found across the islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino. Although these structures elicit notions of dominance, they also obscure multiple scales of materiality within and between their assemblages, particularly the not insignificant corpus of figurines and models. This paper looks at the two extreme ends of scale, immensity and miniaturism, and their role in shaping sensory experience and social relations.     

French military officers and the mapping of West Africa: the case of Captain Brosselard-Faidherbe

Through the study of projects conceived to shape colonial space, this article aims to reconsider the motives and means of French colonial expansion in West Africa in the 1880s and 1890s. The Plan Faidherbe, designed by the Governor of Senegal in the 1860s, outlined a plan for eastward development, including a road and rail link between the Senegal and the Niger Rivers (and beyond, between Algeria and Sudan). The implementation of these routes of penetration called for a number of military-led topographic missions. The study of these missions and of the maps that were produced at the time reveal how such projects and their implementation were mediated by both cartographic and field practices. The case of Captain Henry Brosselard (1855-93), General Faidherbe’s son-in-law, is an interesting example because of the diversity of the missions he led and the extent of territory which he traversed and mapped. This case also shows how, in the course of a career, an officer could assume several different functions and come to conceive the process of building colonial territory from different perspectives. This paper questions a common view of the military as having a purely strategic vision of space as a field of conquest, a view which reserves a more development-oriented outlook for civil administrators and the business community. Indeed, Brosselard’s varied career somewhat blurs the conventional divide between civilians and soldiers, requiring us to reconsider accepted ways of categorising colonial actors.     

The Fluidity of the ‘Farming Ladder’: The Experience of the Duffin Family,Yorkshire, 1870-1950

This article examines the nuances of the ‘farming ladder’ through a case study of the Duffin farming family. It explores the circumstances in which they flourished and faltered; the internal and external determinants affecting their ability to maintain a grip on the ‘farming ladder’; and the fluidity of the ladder. Drawing upon the personal archive of the family and complementary sources, the variable position of the family on the ‘farming ladder’ as they progress from agricultural labourers to farmers and then back to labourers is charted within wider historical and geographical frameworks. The social and spatial relationships forged are identified as being particularly important in the operation of the ‘farming ladder’.