Alan Krell

While barbed wire has always cut across property, war and politics as a tool of control, it has other histories, constructed through image and text in the arts, media and popular culture, which have never before been examined. Invented in France in 1860 and welcomed by the frontier farmers of America, the menacing qualities of barbed wire became evident in the Boer War, the barbed wire no-man's-la

There are some great painters whose influence is confined to the world of painting—others whose impact is felt more widely, who through their art are effectively moral critics, challenging the society in which they live. Manet was one of these. Rejecting the traditional ‘histories’ and ‘mythologies’ that won official acclaim, he turned instead to the life of his own time.Yet he did not

In the Greek myth, Prometheus steals fire from Zeus and gives it as a gift to mankind. Fire, once possessed only by the gods, can now be used by lowly man. Like knowledge in the Garden of Eden, fire is at once essential to living and a dangerous threat to life. This dual nature of fire—that it is something that leads us to think we can command it until it rages beyond our control—has inspired many

The foot—we know it well. Small or large, attractive or unsightly, clean-smelling or foul, it is quite literally the support that carries us through the day. But while the foot may seem nothing more than banal and basic, this familiar assemblage of heel and toes also treads unlikely ground. Some of these sites are real, others are imaginary, and in this quirky and surprising history, Alan Krell st