The art of the pillbox

When Oscar Wilde famously claimed: ‘All art is quite useless’, he may not have had artistic subjects in mind. But it’s certainly true that since the Romantic era, artists have had a special affection for the superannuated. An image of an abandoned building with some sort of past, not necessarily glorious, appeals to our emotions, be it Rachel Whiteread’s ‘House’ or Constable’s ‘Hadleigh Castle’. Even ephemera pre-loved by strangers evoke nostalgia when incorporated in the shadow boxes of Joseph Cornell or the assemblages of Peter Blake. But what about things that are not just obsolete but have never had any use at all? That’s the curious question prompted by a new exhibition at Bodmin Keep, Cornwall’s Army Museum.

Concrete Castles is a sequel to the exhibition Capture the Castle organised by the artist and curator Tim Craven at Southampton City Art Gallery in 2017. That show traced the romantic story of the British castle from its arrival on these shores with William the Conqueror in 1066; this one focuses on its modern mini versions: the rather less romantic concrete pillboxes that sprang up like pimples across the south and east of England in the summer of 1940.