Rodney Graham’s screen print Weathervane (2009) consists of a sheet with twelve colorful motifs, whose graphic design is modeled on the Britain in Pictures book series from the 1940s. The prints humorously depict moments from the life of the Renaissance scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam. Most of the scenes likely refer to a letter Erasmus sent to his friend Beatus Rhenanus in which he recounts the hardships and discomforts of his journey from Basel to Leuven in 1518.
The title Weathervane alludes to a project Graham realized in 2009 for the dome of London’s Whitechapel Gallery. The weathervane depicted the artist himself in the pose of Erasmus of Rotterdam, reading while seated backward on a horse, and also references Graham’s 2005 lightbox work Allegory of Folly.
