Essays
30 April 2026
A caption is an argument you can check
Title, medium, dimensions, place, year. The museum caption is not bureaucracy; it is a claim the viewer can test.
A caption looks like paperwork. It is, in fact, the smallest complete argument a record can make: this object, made of this, at this size, in this place, in this year. Every term is checkable.
To keep a caption honest is to refuse the easy adjective. The work is not 'stunning' or 'powerful'. It is oil on linen, 150 by 120, Abu Dhabi, 2025. The rest is the viewer's to decide.