The Imaginary Museum: Monuments and Landmarks

Louise Atkinson conceived the The Imaginary Museum project as a response to the tradition of artists and theorists interrogating the museum archive format to investigate and explore the politics of collection and display in response to the theories of Andre Malraux, Walter Benjamin and Aby Warburg. The project aimed to understand and communicate the ways in which art history is made, and how artists engage with the collection and categorisation of art. The project is a continuation of earlier versions of the concept, which were held at The Tetley, Leeds in March 2014, and Leeds College of Art as part of their Library Interventions project. In this iteration of the project, The Imaginary Museum focuses upon images of, and responses to, Monuments and Landmarks. Hicks’ image selected and reproduced in postcard form for the project was a watercolour, which she produced while visiting the city of Berlin. This image and the text reproduced on the back focused upon the historical significance of the activity of watercolour as a precursor to photography as a means of preserving an image of place.