The Dark Monarch: magic and modernity in British art

This major curated exhibition, publication and events builds on Rowlands’ curatorial research. Working in collaboration with co-curators Martin Clark, Artistic Director, Tate St Ives and Michael Bracewell, cultural historian, the exhibition sought to explore new narratives within British art. The innovative curatorial methodology developed from a fiction found in the infamous novel, The Dark Monarch by Sven Berlin, Gallery Press 1962. The research sought specific archival and collection work that allowed thematic strands to emerge that represented influences across generations. The exhibition features two-hundred artworks, from the Tate Collection, archives and other significant British public and private collections. It examines the development of early Modernism, in the UK, as well as the reappearance of esoteric and arcane references in a significant strand of contemporary art practice. Historical works from Samuel Palmer, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore and Paul Nash are shown alongside contemporary artists including Derek Jarman, Cerith Wyn Evans, Eva Rothschild, Linder and John Russell. The exhibition includes a key work by Damien Hirst ¬ the first time he has been shown at Tate St Ives and a number of contemporary commissions. The Dark Monarch publication extended the discourse of the research critically examining the tension between progressive modernity and romantic knowledge, the book focuses on the way that artworks are encoded with various histories - geological, mythical and magical. Essays examine magic as a counterpoint to modernity’s transparency and rational progress, but also draw out the links modernity has with notions such as fetishism, mana, totem, and the taboo. Often viewed as counter to Modernism, this collection of essays suggest that these products of illusion and delusion in fact belong to modernity. Drawing together 15 different writers commissioned to explore magic as a counterpoint of liberal understanding of modernity, drawing out links that modernity has with notions of fetish, taboo and occult philosophy. Including essays by Marina Warner, Ilsa Colsell, Philip Hoare, Chris Stephens, Jennifer Higgie and Morrissey.

Insect and bird interactions

This unique book is the first of its kind to explore the diversity of interactions between insects and birds. A group of international experts enthusiastically agreed to contribute to the four sections of the book following the success of an Entomological Club Conference on Insect and Bird Interactions. The first section covers population management issues, discussing effects on birds highly relevant to the planting of large areas of GM crops, new opportunities for increasing biodiversity in farming landscapes, and the novel aspect of managing insects by exploiting birds as biological control agents. This is followed by a section discussing the effects of insecticides on bird populations, and includes a contribution from the RSPB, as well as a re-appraisal of the effects of DDT on raptors. Next, the foraging behaviour of birds on insects is discussed, with chapters also on 'warning' coloration in insects and learning by birds. The first chapter in this section is unusual in having been written by an ophthalmologist and covers colour vision in birds, more specifically ultraviolet vision in relation to insect coloration. Finally, the authors look at insects that are parasites of birds or feed on the detritus in nests, and review the ecology and evolution of the co-adaptation of insect ectoparasites with birds. Insect and Bird Interactions is unparalleled in scope and coverage and will be of interest to entomologists, ornithologists, and ecologists alike.

Indexical predicates

We discuss the challenge to truth-conditional semantics presented by apparent shifts in extension of predicates such as ‘red’. We propose an explicit indexical semantics for ‘red’ and argue that our account is preferable to the alternatives on conceptual and empirical grounds.

A library at Antium?

This chapter considers the implications of accepting the 'Antium' crux in Galen's recently discovered Peri Alphas ( = De Indolentia). It examines what we know about the Roman imperial villa library at Antium, and what this new testimony can add.