Waiting for Napoleon

Waiting for Napoleon depicts a compositionally characteristic scene reminiscent of historical romantic painting. A view through the window of a Scottish castle - out onto the sea, recalls the evocative landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich, whose romantic ideals were very much about being captivated and enthralled by the power of nature. The repetitive motions of the sea and clouds create a mesmeric, almost monotonous energy, that is in tune with the anxious anticipation of an impending invasion. In a sense the work has an endless narrative of waiting/of time passing. While he never actually came, the set-up of the castle is still tailored to that long lost possibility. (Josh Lilley) If the recent fuss over Tony Blair's memoirs is anything to go by, we are all still waiting for Napoleon; quite a few of us thought Blair might fit the job description, and it's ironic that Iraq has ruined his heroic credibility in a way that Moscow never did for Bonaparte. In the titular piece, 'Waiting for Napoleon', German video artist Clara S Rueprich offers a wordless testimony to our ability to wait, and find meaning in the waiting. A black sea fidgets through the window as the sky lightens to lime. A clock ticks. Day is coming, but it's unlikely that our prince will. The whole vision resembles the background to a renaissance portrait: it cries out for a person to fill the frame, but no one appears. The touching, elegiac quality of that piece, as well as of 'Awakening', and 'Ariel' ... (Waiting for Napoleon, by Nina Caplan, Time Out London, September 23rd-29th 2010) timeout.com/london/art/event/199074/clara-s-rueprich