Quaking: The 1755 Lisbon Disaster and the Modern Subject

Introduction: Chasms and Crevices

Starting as a hairline crack, the jagged cleft forked its way to the far end of the gallery, deepening as it went. Artist Doris Salcedo's installation Shibboleth cut through the concrete floor of the cavernous Turbine Hall of London's Tate Gallery, severing reinforcing rods and everything else in its path. Confronting what looked disturbingly like real, seismically inflicted structural damage, reviewers seemed relieved to point out that at its deepest it went down no more than a few feet. While it may have been the case that throughout its 167-meter length the fracture remained narrow enough to hop over with ease, you could cross it ...