A Handful of Dust, Whitechapel

A response to the spiritual and cultural crisis in the interwar period, TS Eliot's dream-like five section poem The Waste Land is cited by writer-turned-curator David Campany as the source of inspiration for his upcoming exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, A Handful of Dust.

Despite desperate attempts to rid our lives, homes, studios and closets of dust, its photogenic qualities have made it the subject of many of the 12th century's most pivotal art works.

Tracing a visual journey through the 20th century via the motif of dust and dirt created by human activity, war, destruction and natural disaster, A Handful of Dust features works by more than 30 artists and photographers including Gerhard Richter, Robert Fillion and Mona Kuhn, alongside press photos and cuttings, and movie clips.

From Man Ray’s 1920 photograph of The Large Glass, a work in progress by conceptualist artist Marcel Duchamp, deliberately left to gather dust in his studio, to Walker Evans' American landscapes of the United States during the great depression, A Handful of Dust celebrates dust in all its aesthetic glory.

Expect the unexpected and prepare to decipher the unknown in the Whitechapel's upcoming multi-disciplinary exhibition.