In anticipation of the bicentenary of Edgar Allan Poe�s birth (1809), White Cube’s exhibition “You Dig the Tunnel, I’ll Hide the Soil” explores the enduring legacy and cult status of the American writer. Wherever curator Harland Miller noticed a connection to an artist�s existing work, life or practice, he approached them to read the stories and asked them to respond in any manner they saw fit and to interpret the story with a new work. In The Observer, Sean O’Hagen reports. “Given that the great horror writer has been well served by illustrators – Dor� and Beardsley immediately spring to mind – it is a brave move on Miller’s part to attempt to contemporise Poe’s work and, in doing so, drag it out of the Gothic tradition. Ironically, one of the defining aspects of the exhibition is that it highlights not just the extremity of Poe’s dark imaginings, but the seam of pitch-black Gothic absurdism that runs through contemporary British art from the Chapman brothers to the Wilson sisters.” Read more.
“You Dig the Tunnel, I’ll Hide the Soil,” curated by Harland Miller and Irene Bradbury. White Cube, London through May 10. Artists include Fergus Bremner, Jake & Dinos Chapman, John Cooper Clarke, Liz Craft, Tracey Emin, Angus Fairhurst, Katharina Fritsch, Paul Fryer, Barnaby Furnas, Douglas Gordon, Rodney Graham, Marcus Harvey, Anton Henning, Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Abigail Lane, Christian Marclay, Kris Martin, Harland Miller, Polly Morgan, Mike Nelson, Magnus Plessen, Michele Howarth Rashman, Julian Schnabel, Gregor Schneider, Norbert Schoerner, George Shaw, Cindy Sherman, Jason Shulman, Dirk Skreber, Paul Steinitz, Fred Tomaselli, Jane & Louise Wilson and Cerith Wyn Evans.
