Charlotte Skene Catling designed an exquisite theatrical response within the limits of the 5m x 4m booth – the perspectival recession housed a vast number of objects that focus on the relationship between Authenticity and Originality. The facsimiles of the Cluny Christ (made for the Algerian artist Rachid Koraïchi), the Eccardt painting, in a frame attributed to Grinling Gibbons (made for Strawberry Hill House) and the table of Teschen (made for the Marquis de Breteuil, its original is now in the Louvre) provoked the amazement. The most commonly used response was ‘scary’. It is curious that people should be scared by the fact we can now record with such accuracy that it can be replicated in a way that even a connoisseur considers ‘right’ from a normal distance. Technology has come a long way – it is helping us to understand the biography of objects better and with more accuracy and depth and is a allowing a more profound understanding and appreciation of objects.
Adam Lowe
Director of Factum Arte
