This exhibition is about close looking and reading. Six writers of different backgrounds have been specially commissioned to write responses to six works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection, with texts that span from poetry to storytelling.
Close Looking: Collection Studies from the Roberts Institute of Art
at Cromwell Place
22 November–3 December 2023
The exhibition is a development of our ongoing Collection Study series – case-studies of individual works from the Collection. In this series, we encourage writers to think with and write alongside the work, using the encounter to experiment with their written response. Reflecting on what ‘to study’ means, the series is rooted in both senses of the word: of paying attention to a particular subject and work done for practice or experiment.
A compendium of various voices not bound by one theme or overarching idea, the exhibition shows the breadth of possible responses to an artwork and how the encounter can expand and inspire the writer’s own practice.
Each writer has also recorded an audio version of their text, which you can listen to while looking at the work.
Read and listen to the Collection Studies below:
Installation views
Installation view of Close Looking: Collection Studies from the Roberts Institute of Art at Cromwell Place, 2023. Courtesy the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Photo: Elliott Mickleburgh
