M HKA Ensembles

Book, 23.9 x 17 cm, 62 p, language: English, publisher: Birmingham: An Endless Supply, ISBN: 9 780957 061408.

Collection: Collectie M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2025/525).

Literary synopsis

Based on Lytle Shaw’s research for the Chadwick family, this book provides new access to the mysterious Clifford Chadwick Clifford — anthropologist, spy, furniture designer. Galvanized by his early fieldwork on the sabotaging of British colonial outposts, Clifford disaffiliated himself with the Chadwick family by abandoning his given name, Thurston Huffington Chadwick. A prolific and provocative writer, Clifford became a countercultural legend before going underground in the early 1970s amid rumours of his ties to the FBI. Now, with the discovery in Zurich of a tape Clifford made as he disappeared from society, a far more detailed picture of this shadowy figure emerges. The tape’s transcript casts light on Clifford’s complex ties to the American government, his dramatic activities across Cold War Europe and the Middle East, and his collection of espionage devices encased within sleek modernist furniture.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

In Lytle Shaw’s words: “I discovered Clifford while researching Ernst Moiré; Blachly and I are currently working on documenting his remarkable life and hope to exhibit objects from it soon.”

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