The selection of events in this piece is highly subjective, some might say unreliable.
The piece comprises line drawings and captions based on images in the following book: The Automobile Association (1989) Illustrated London News Great Events of the 20th Century. London: Guild Publishing.
Three selectors made this piece: The Illustrated London News, The Automobile Association and me.
The Illustrated London News recorded events that it felt its readership would regard as significant.
The editors employed by the Automobile Association made a selection from images produced by The Illustrated London News based on what they thought their readers would think were great events of the 20th century.
I selected from the AA’s selection from The Illustrated London News’s selection based on my own subjective interests.
The title of the book is misleading, as some of the events in it took place in the 19th century, and none of the events took place after 1989.
Currently there are not 64 events of the 20th century displayed in this piece of work (although there were originally). There are 50 drawings and 60 texts.
The drawings are highly selective in terms of what they depict from the original image. They only show hands, in most cases one hand.
The captions are highly selective in terms of what they describe. They focus on what I felt were interesting details in the images.
It is not always clear which image corresponds with which text, as the texts are not all displayed next to their corresponding image. There are several texts without an image.
There are symbols and letters drawn onto the wall that suggest there has been a process of decision-making about the placement of the images and texts.
The piece does not yet seem complete.
I did this piece in 2001-15.
W P Thomas 