City Changes

2008
Etchells, Tim
The city as a construct figures prominently in Tim Etchells’s visual art, performances and fiction. At the start of his 20-part text work, City Changes (2008) Etchells introduces – in black and white – a nameless city in which nothing ever changes. In the prints that follow, he rewrites and distorts this text, painting a preposterous picture of a place in which change is endemic and nothing is stable. Each amendment, addition or omission that takes place is captured and colour-coded, laying bare the process of writing. The sequence concludes with a multi-coloured account of the same city that has by now undergone a complete metamorphosis. Speaking about City Changes, Etchells says: ‘I was fascinated by the language that talks cities up (and talks them down) in everything from travel guides to fiction. These kinds of stories are always part of a conversation about what we want our lives to be, about imagining futures.’
  • Artwork Details: 21 x 30cm
  • Edition:
  • Material description: 20 inkjet prints
  • Credit line: © the artist
  • Theme:
  • Medium: Print
  • Accession number: ACC26/2016

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The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

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