This paper develops an account of post-war London from the building site paintings of Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. It approaches these paintings as a visceral and embodied source of data regarding the post World War Two landscape of bomb damaged London. It contrasts this form of knowledge with the narratives of memorialisation, and order and control, which I argue characterise post-war reconstruction. In this context the paintings are read as an ontological statement about the complexity and ambiguity of the urban landscape, one which contrasts with historical and contemporary narratives of the urban built environment. The paper posits that knowledgeswhich preserve the complexities and materialities of urban space have the potential to provide political interventions into both historical and contemporary narratives of the city.

中文翻译：

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建筑工地本体论：奥尔巴赫和科索夫绘画中的战后伦敦

本文从 Frank Auerbach 和 Leon Kossoff 的建筑工地画作中对战后伦敦进行了描述。它将这些画作作为关于第二次世界大战后伦敦被炸弹破坏的景观的内在和具体的数据来源。它将这种知识形式与纪念、秩序和控制的叙述进行了对比，我认为这是战后重建的特征。在这种背景下，这些画作被解读为关于城市景观的复杂性和模糊性的本体论陈述，与城市建筑环境的历史和当代叙事形成鲜明对比。本文假设，保留城市空间复杂性和物质性的知识有可能为城市的历史和当代叙事提供政治干预。