I was walking through a university in Melbourne and, as I was taking the escalator up to the floor where I was
giving my talk, I passed a couple of classrooms that have glass
walls so I could look into the classroom, and it's the first day of exams so the scene I saw in there, even though I didn't know it was the first day of exams, I could recognise it right away: desks separated by a metre or two,
bare tables with just a piece of paper, an eraser and a pen; no calculators, no computers, nothing; students cut off from each other; students cut off from any source of information.
Mr. Elderfield opens by pairing Jasper Johns's 1982 «In the Studio» with Picasso's 1928 «The Studio,» a great match
given their intimations of real and depicted bodies and their shifting combinations of white paint and
bare or nearly
bare canvas to depict
walls, art and studio table.
Sleek grey units,
bare brick
walls, whitewashed floorboards and vintage accessories
give the kitchen - diner a modern, industrial - style vibe.