Tom Morton Curates Archaeological-Themed Exhibition in Lincoln Featuring Sarah Lucas, Roger Hiorns, and Karen Russo

Curator Tom Morton organized a major exhibition exploring archaeology as palimpsest across multiple Lincoln venues in 2013. At The Collection, archaeological samples from Poplar Farm, Grantham shared space with contemporary works including Sarah Lucas's plastic gnome sculpture Willy (2000) and Keith Coventry's photolithograph Crack Pipes (2000). David Musgrave's Overlapping Figures (2001) explicitly referenced archaeological layering, while Alexander Tovborg presented five brightly colored paintings responding to a medieval baptismal font. Jan Ijäs's video Two Islands (2012) featured Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island as a contemporary archaeological site. Across the street at the Usher Gallery, Jess Flood-Paddock's installation Love, Like a Cough, Cannot Be Concealed (2013) meditated on Pompeii with pillows and Roman imagery. Jeremy Millar's silicone corpse sculpture Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man (The Willows) (2011) appeared alongside Adrien Missika's film Black Sand Beach (2011) showing slackers in Hawaii. Lincoln Cathedral housed Roger Hiorns's suspended jet engine installation Untitled (2012) in its transept, with Bishop Edward King's statue nearby. The Greyfriars Building crypt hosted Karen Russo's film Externsteine (2012) about contested German rock formations and Nazi-era archaeological manipulation by Wilhelm Teudt. The exhibition presented archaeology as a framework for understanding contemporary civilization through material remains.