THE POWER OF EROTIC DESIGN
Catherine McDermott/Christopher Brewer

For the past year Catherine McDermott, who teaches the history of design at Kingston University has been curating an exhibition on the erotic in twentieth century design now at the Design Museum until October. Some of the issues which inform the structure and approach of the exhibition were raised in the form of a lecture/seminar series taught jointly by Catherine and Christopher Brewer at the Royal College of Art, where Christopher is a tutor in the School of Humanities. The following conversation between the two reviews those elements of planning and research which underpin the Design Museum project.

ARCHIVES OR ATTRACTIONS?
Maurice Davies

A COSTUME RESEARCH AND INTERPRETATION PROJECT BASED ON PAINTINGS IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY
Michael Pope

In May 1996 the Education Department of the National Gallery agreed to a proposal from Michael Pope, Subject Leader in Costume in the Theatre Department at Wimbledon School of Art, for a research and interpretation pro-ject involving BA (Hons) Costume students from the School. The culmination of the project took the form of two presentations in the Sainsbury Theatre and the presentation of the costumes next to the paintings in the National Gallery in January 1997.

The following notes and observations give some indication of the potential of such activity within a 'research' frame of reference.

THE FRAMER'S COLLECTION
John Goto

The Framer's Collection is the last in John Goto's Five Tales from the twentieth Century which comprises of five interrelated exhibitions reflecting on the history of our century. Beginning with Terezin in 1987 they include The Atomic Yard, The Scar and The Commissar of Space which is to be shown at MOMA, Oxford early next year. As a student of painting at St. Martin's in the late sixties, Goto worked closely with his contemporaries Andrzej Klimowski and Craigie Horsfield on the idea of a vast and sprawling European culture that stood in opposition to the hegemony of America. In the seventies he made a number of photo-roman in the cities of Istanbul, London, Paris and Prague. The eighties saw his interest in history thrown into sharper focus by a move into photo montage which culminates in the use of digital processes in the present series.

ENDURING ANGELS
John Stezaker

Nicky Coutts in conversation with John Stezaker on potential sources and mythologies that surround his most recent work, with particular reference to "The Garden" exhibition, shown in the UK most recently at the Cubitt Gallery in the spring of last year.