From a Nation Torn provides a powerful critique of art history's understanding of French modernism and the historical circumstances that shaped its production and reception. Within art history, the aesthetic practices and theories that emerged in France from the late 1940s into the 1960s are demarcated as postwar. Yet it was during these very decades that France fought a protracted series of wars to maintain its far-flung colonial empire. Given that French modernism was created during, rather than after, war, Hannah Feldman argues that its interpretation must incorporate the tumultuous "decades of decolonization"and their profound influence on visual and public culture. Focusing on the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962) and the historical continuities it presented with the experience of the Second World War, Feldman highlights decolonization's formative effects on art and related theories of representation, both political and aesthetic. Ultimately, From a Nation Torn constitutes a profound exploration of how certain populations and events are rendered invisible and their omission naturalized within histories of modernity.

The Smart X-ray Optics project is a UK based consortium of eight institutions investigatingactive/adaptive X-ray optics for both large and small scale applications. The consortium is funded by a basic technology grant from the Engineering andPhysical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The large scale application is aimed towards future high angular resolution, largeX-ray telescopes for X-ray astronomy. The first prototype mirror incorporates piezoelectricdevices to a standard X-ray shell to enable the surface to be actively deformed. The aim is to achieve an angular resolution better than that currentlyavailable (e.g. Chandra 0.5?). The initial design is based on a thin nickel ellipsoidsegment on the back of which a series of thirty, curved piezoelectric actuators havebeen bonded. The small scale application is aimed at providing an X-ray focusing device, capableof producing a focused spot of?10?m, the same size as an average biological cellfor cancer research and studies. Current small scale devices, zone plates, are limitedby their focal length and aperture, and cannot be used at energies greater than1keV . In order to increase the workable X-ray energies, whilst still providing smallspot sizes over short distances, a new optic was designed. Micro Optical Arrays arebased on polycapillary or Micro Channel Plate optics (MCPs) and consist of a seriesof parallel channels, etched into silicon wafers. By the attachment of piezoelectricdevices, a device with a variable focal length can be created. The work presented within this thesis describes the design, metrology, modellingand X-ray testing of the first large adaptive X-ray optic and the theory, modellingand X-ray testing of the small scale optic. Summaries, conclusions and future workare also outlined.

Exhibition catalogue produced on the occasion of Huguette Caland: Bribes de corps, April 17 - August 2, 2025 at The Arts Club of Chicago.