Captain James Cook sits fiercely stabbing at a world map (Nathaniel Dance 1775). His look is commanding yet the otherworldly landscape suggests that he is anything but at home. He is an alien in a foreign and fearful place. An 18th-century icon cast adrift, foolishly dividing up the spoils.

Robert Hague’s imagery plays on the (im)permanence of historical objects, the ambiguities of their meanings, and the cultural associations of their forms. His prints, sculpture and video are immediately attractive but harbour contradicting layers that deepen the longer one considers them. A few works within this Plate series are in the NGA collection.

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