On entering this major Francis Bacon retrospective, curated by David Sylvester one was immediately confronted by the memorably horrific Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, 1944. These weird sisters, phallic in inspiration, ambiguously maleficent in pose and identity, seem to have been inspired by the vengeful Eumenides who, in Aeschylus’ drama, pursued Orestes after Athens lost the Peloponnesian war. Writhing before a stark orange background, mouths either hardly visible or wide open in a vagina dentata–esque howl, these creatures are nevertheless oddly domesticated, more

For about ten years now, Fariba Hajamadi has been assembling an “archive” on museums and historical monuments located in places to which she has recently traveled. Hajamadi is primarily interested in the ways in which the West has represented other cultures and histories, and in particular how artworks have been catalogued and exhibited both in their countries of origin and in foreign institutions. The artist notes: “1 found myself taking on the role of the observer or tourist, photographing the sites of historical monuments as well as museums in these various countries. What interested me was