Page 30 - Art First: Helen MacAlister: The Glamour of Backwardness
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AF HM catalogue 2023 PRINT.qxp_Layout 1 15/06/2023 17:37 Page 28
Open Canon
2013/14, pencil on paper, set of 6 unique sheets, each sheet 42 x 59.4 cm (a2), open edition
1
This is the open canon–‘So the play is not ‘about’; it is itself; it is a play.’ – this is the version as stands.
“A canonical understanding of Scottish literature ought to help counterbalance three centuries of
institutional neglect, and it should also enable confident self-determination in channels of cultural
2
transmission, both within and outside of Scotland.”
A cycle contingent with, ‘The quality of a country’s policy-making depends in part on its collective
3
memory. And that memory depends in part on public bureaucracies.’
The Gaelic word oilean covers education and honeysuckle.
1. Hugh Kenner, A Reader’s Guide to Samuel Beckett, p.31
2. Alan Riach, University of Glasgow, What Good is a Canon? The Case of Scottish Literature
3. Stephen Maxwell, Arguing for Independence, p.63
