Osram (40 watt) 2008

Editor: This is Steven Claydon’s "Osram (40 watt)," the dimensions are roughly A3 and it is held at the Tate. It feels like a ghostly echo of a historical painting, but something about the golden hue and the title pulls it into the present. What do you make of it? Curator: That's a delicious contradiction, isn't it? Claydon often plays with anachronism, juxtaposing the old and the new. Perhaps it's a commentary on how we consume history, filtered through the artificial light of the modern world. Does the image feel…degraded, somehow? Editor: Yes, faded, like a memory or a copy of a copy. Curator: Exactly! And the "Osram" part of the title? The common lightbulb feels deliberately mundane. It’s like Claydon is asking us to question the authenticity and value we place on historical imagery in the age of mass production. Editor: So, it is less about the historical figure himself, and more about how we perceive history through…light? Curator: Precisely! It's a clever trick, using the familiar to illuminate the way we look at the past. Editor: I never would have considered that. It certainly shines a different light on it, doesn't it?