Abstract

Ansorge managed to arouse the enthusiasm of the counsel for each side, and thus came the trial that a major contemporary jurisprudent described as 'the four-leaf clover on the meadow of litigation'. In those days, people still used lovely images, usually plucking them from nature. From 'The two souls' by Wolfgang Hildesheimer

The exhibition 'How Say You' is an experiment with the creative space provided by the institution of the court in contemporary society. To this end, a number of artists are invited to produce works whose authorship is under dispute. The law plays a critical role in granting these works seriousness. Outside the court, such acts constitute a postmodem parlour game, embodying the 'lightness of being' which follows the demise of the artist as hero. Inside the court, these invented artists provide exercise for the aura that surrounds the operations of the law in which legal fonnality outweighs subjective experience. It touches the silence demanded of courtroom visitors, or what Slavoj Zizek describes as: 'the shadowy double that always accompanies the public Law.' (Zizek 1994: 194)

How to Cite:

Murray, K., (1995) “How say you? An exhibition under false pretences”, Law Text Culture 2(1), 285-288.