ABSTRACT
Elsewhere, however, Allchurch’s desire to make a social comment leads her to alter the mood of the original work. In Setting No.2 (after Canaletto), Canaletto’s brightly lit Grand Canal full of gondoliers and merchant vessels, is replaced with a gritty London view of the Grand Union Canal complete with a gaggle of geese and a barge. Whereas Canaletto’s scene is bustling and lively, Allchurch’s is one of eerie silence illuminated by a metallic light. Devoid of figures, one wonders why there are video cameras on the right hand side of the composition: who are they watching? Although Canaletto’s Grand Canal (ca.1738) – like the Claude – has provided a compositional structure for Allchurch, in this instance her vision within it has also been pushed further by the subject of the original work itself. It is as though Canaletto’s painting, so full of life, has inspired her to create this image of emptiness, a comment perhaps on the anonymity of society today.
