Michael Morris
June 2002
Artangel had explored ways of collaborating with filmmakers, sculptors, choreographers and composers but hadn't found a way of inviting a writer to imagine what happens when you put language on location. The series 'INNERCity' would focus on this area of work.
Frances Coady, then head of Granta Books, recommended I meet Rachel Lichtenstein who was preparing Rodinsky's Room with lain Sinclair about a legendary recluse who lived above a synagogue in Spitalfields, his attic room re-discovered after many years.
Talking to Rachel we came up with the idea of tracing Rodinsky's paths in and around Brick Lane. Rodinsky's Whitechapel, was a beautifully produced guidebook containing a map, a legend and a commentary.
You could stop off at the cafe where Rodinsky played the spoons, visit Mr Katz's string shop and see the site of the former Kosher Luncheon Club, finally arriving at Elfes Stone Masons where Rodinsky's headstone was displayed in the window. Rachel finally discovered Rodinsky's unmarked grave in Waltham Abbey. The headstone, consecrated as the final chapter of our project, remains the only permanent monument commissioned by Artangel.
Lichtenstein's walk ran alongside a series of Sunday excursions mapped out by lain Sinclair, which took their cue from markings in Rodinsky's personal copy of the London A-Z, left behind in his attic room on Princelet Street.