Jo Herlihy
Passports to modernity
‘These are living and breathing social documents that talk of human beings speaking to other human beings. The language and mode of expression is radical, bold and strident. And I think it relates to what we’ve already discussed…that artists saw themselves as part of a much bigger change that some sections of society were attempting to bring about.’
Look who’s watching now
What is truly your own private space? Is this the space of a lodger in a communal bunk house, at home or in a park making love, or can it be on a bus pondering the day ahead? What about those social but private liaisons? How do you regard the strip joint, couple’s kissing in the cinema or a Wall Street brothel. And what about what’s public - anarchists in city square, assassinated individuals, dead soldiers on the battlefield?
We need mirrors?
It would appear that pathos and disappointment define a strong contemporary current, with fewer options projecting and inspiring us forwards. It seems that that the scope of our future orientation is constrained. We’re not just nervous about setting ambitious goals. The attempt to do so is understood as seen as arrogant. Such audaciousness will see us repeating past mistakes
Breathless
The poetry of Keats is informed by personal experience but expressed in shared universal language, embodying a positive distinction between public and private. His letters, on the other hand, indicate the profound tensions that existed simultaneously for the individual.
Privacy and the public
Privacy intrusions don’t just happen when information is inappropriately gathered, stored or shared. Intervention in people’s private lives and private thoughts now occurs so routinely around that it has become a normal fact of life.
