farewell

Up to Kettle's Yard yesterday hoping to get a last look at the de Waals. The gallery was shut; black-clad staff inside were squatting, wrapping things. There were cartons stuffed with bubble wrap and bound with parcel tape, boxes of curious dimensions, some very long and thin, unwieldy. Two men paused amid the ruins of the Wunderkammer, of which nothing remained but the base, some stacked sections of plywood, and cardboard boxes. A high scaffold stood next to where 'All you can see' had cheered the empty wall. The young men and women in their black t-shirts looked like rude mechanicals, and I wanted to watch but that's rude. I'm even now wondering if de W has decreed how the installations should be dismantled.

Oh, come on, I tell myself. This is just taking down an exhibition. These people are used to it.