Decolonise History of Art and Architecture

Rename Seeley Library – Open Letter

W2co498GGp — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 17:27:00 +0000

More info on the campaign: see the Facebook group

The letter is reproduced here:

sign here: https://forms.gle/pUHFYKaWRQtdQzDJ9

To the History Faculty at the University of Cambridge,

The Seeley Historical Library was named after John Robert Seeley, a Cambridge Regius Professor known for his justification of the British Empire. The library’s name must be changed to the History Faculty Library. In dedicating the history library to Seeley, the University is associating itself with his career and beliefs. It reflects the University’s historic and ongoing justification and support of colonialism. If Cambridge is committed to looking into its legacies of empire and colonialism, then it cannot continue to blindly celebrate such a figure. Current and future students should not have to set foot in a library that commemorates British imperial conquest.

John Robert Seeley was born in 1834 in London, and went on to study at City of London School, and Christ’s College, Cambridge. After becoming head of the Classics tripos, he was elected fellow of Christ’s and became a tutor in Classics. In 1883, while a Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, he wrote ‘The Expansion of England’. This text has been lauded as “the single influence which did most to develop the imperialist idea” by Robert Ensor¹ In 1895, a memorial fund was raised to commemorate his services to the British Empire and the University. Most of this fund was endowed to the history library, which was named in his commemoration in 1897.

For too long figures like Seeley have had their legacies neutralised by their vague liberal beliefs like supporting the admission of elite women into universities. The library’s naming and association is representative of Cambridge’s lack of desire to confront its legacies of colonialism. Permitting Seeley to remain an unchallenged, neutral figure in history serves to naturalise how logics of imperialism and colonialism remain central to the university.

The library could instead name a section with texts on imperialist history to make it clear what Seeley’s legacy represents. At Seeley’s own Christ’s College, the History Society has been renamed from the Seeley History Society to Christ’s College History Society. Changing the name would be a symbolic act to show Cambridge University’s commitment to decolonisation.

¹Ensor, R.C.K. (1936). England: 1870-1914. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

We, the undersigned, call on the University of Cambridge and its History Faculty to immediately remove Seeley from the name of the library and to rename it to the History Faculty Library.

see latest signatories here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Ho9g8zbrM-agGbCX-8WvFzyYFhNhmkhnG0kmM3yS8I/edit

Decolonising the Archive: 3pm, 15/11/21 @ Kettles Yard

W2co498GGp — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 21:03:21 +0000

15 Nov 2021 15:00 – 16:00

Ede Room, Kettles Yard

Please register here

Introductions of our guest speakers

Samia Malik an artist and designer, her creative practice concentrates on social justice. She’s working towards another human civilisation beyond the demonic, satanic, evil, hierarchical structures of capitalism, neoliberalism that are ground-laying branches to divide and conquer through: racism, sexism and classicism. Malik has exhibited art internationally, also designed clothes that have sold world-wide. Malik is also the director of WOCI (women of colour index) Reading Group, that focuses on making art histories visible of female black and brown artists. Malik, will be relaunching her gallery in November 2021 called Samia Gallery. Malik also works as a lecturer at Shades of Noir at University of the Arts.

Alina Khakoo is a doctoral candidate in Criticism and Culture at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD explores the South Asian diaspora in the British black arts movement, in British black intellectual production, and in British black feminist and lesbian organising in the 1970s–80s. Alongside her PhD, she has worked as a Curatorial Assistant at Kettle’s Yard.

Wiki Jam: 5pm, 12/11/21 @ Downing College

W2co498GGp — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 20:56:16 +0000

Tim Cadbury Room at Downing college

5pm, Friday, 12th November 2021

What is Wiki Jam?

We will be meeting to log onto Wikipedia, Wikiversity and Wikimedia: editing outdated articles on the History of Art and adding more progressive and decolonised information to them. This will be a chance to speak and write about art in a decolonised way, making an impact to the public domain of knowledge.

You will also get to meet our lovely team members and other people who are interested in the same mission to decolonise.

Snacks will be provided.

Check latest details at our Facebook event

Art of the African Diaspora: A Conversation with Osei Bonsu, Paul Goodwin & Evan Ifekoya

Thomas — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 15:23:55 +0000

Join the Decolonise History of Art working group for “Art of the African Diaspora: A Conversation with Osei Bonsu, Paul Goodwin and Evan Ifekoya” taking place on Monday the 26th of October 6-7pm. Register via the Eventbrite link below.

Osei Bonsu is the Curator of International Art at Tate Modern, London. He has worked as a critic, curator and art historian developing projects focused on transnational histories of art. Based between London and Paris, he has curated numerous shows internationally and is also a contributing editor at frieze magazine.

Professor Paul Goodwin is an independent curator, urban theorist and researcher whose work focuses on interdisciplinary fields of contemporary art and urbanism, with a particular focus on black and diaspora artists and visual cultures. Having worked as a curator at Tate Britain from 2008-2012 Goodwin has worked on many curatorial projects both in Britain and abroad. Within the field of contemporary art, Goodwin has focused on processes of migration, globalisation and transnationalism and how they are yielding new forms of artistic and curatorial practices.

Evan Ifekoya is an artist and energy worker who through sound, text, video and performance places demands on existing systems and institutions of power, to recentre and prioritise the experience and voice of those previously marginalised. Through archival and sonic investigations, they speculate on blackness in abundance; the body of the ocean a watery embodied presence in the work. They established the collectively run and QTIBPOC (queer, trans*, intersex, black and people of colour) led Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) in 2018. In 2019, they won the Kleinwort Hambros Emerging Artists Prize and in 2017 the Arts Foundation award for Live Art sponsored by Yoma Sasberg Estate. They have presented exhibitions and performances across Europe and Internationally, most recently: Liverpool Biennial (2021); Gus Fischer New Zealand (2020); De Appel Netherlands (2019); Gasworks London (2018).

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-of-the-african-diaspora-tickets-125878567183

In Solidarity with the Tutuilan

Izzy Collie-Cousins — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 14:10:08 +0000

Decolonise History of Art contribute to University of Cambridge Museums’ ‘Museum Remix: Unheard’ challenge

In response to the University of Cambridge Museums’ (UCM) ‘Museum Remix: Unheard’ challenge, we made a compilation of reflections on the blatant colonial perspective that governs British museums. The audio and full transcript and credits are linked to at the bottom of this post.

We purposefully exceeded the brief – to respond to one of 9 works from across their collections in 3 minutes or less – to bring attention to broader decolonial issues, notably encompassing the fight for the repatriation of the Gweagal Spears to the indigenous Gweagal people of Australia.

We responded to “Man from Tutuila with hair bound [and] unbound” in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA). These photographs from colonial Samoa depict a fa’afafine person, identified by their hairstyle and pose. Fa’afafine is a Samoan term that can be translated as ‘third gender’ and, according to UCM, “expresses gender fluidity and encompasses all LGBTQ+ people.”

Man from Tutuila with hair bound, John Davis, c.1873, Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Man from Tutuila with hair unbound, John Davis, c.1873, Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Through their central placement, consistent pose, expression and background in both images, the discrepancy of this Tutuilan person’s hairstyle is made the focus of these photographs. While the 3/4 profile and torso-length frame is common to western portraiture, the lack of other identifiable features gives these photographs the undeniable air of an encyclopaedic entry.

The taxonomical character of these photographs is made clearer by the subjugation of of their gender to western understanding. It is clear in the Museum: Remix brief that the MAA curators know ‘man’ is not the appropriate way to describe this person, yet the reductive label remains.

This unabashed prioritising of the western gaze is the unifying feature of these photographs and the Gweagal Spears; the refusal by the MAA to return the Spears is a clear indication of this. Rodney Kelly – activist and descendent of Cooman from whom the Spears were stolen in 1770 – has stated that having the Spears returned to Australia is essential to the survival of Indigenous culture, both for the Gweagal people themselves, and for broader awareness in Australia. In prioritizing western ownership the UCM continue to stand with the colonisers John Davis (photographer) and Anatole von Hugel (collector).

Another focus of our response is UCM’s unwillingness to make lasting change in their pursuit of decolonisation. The very premise of Museum Remix allows UCM to perform a willingness to diversify the points of view it validates, without having to implement structural change to the way their insitutions operate. Our critique thus aligns with the demands of the recent open letter to UCM by Decolonise History of Art and Decolonise Archaeology, which asserts the need for:

“Better representation and support of BIPOC employees and students;
A UCM-wide research initiative to reveal the colonial factors behind UCM’s collections;
Changes to the display of [UCM] collections;
Re-evaluation of [UCM’s] approach to repatriation”

Central to the issue of structural change is that of expertise. In contrasting personal poetic and descriptive responses to Davis’ photographs with the activist expertise of Rodney Kelly, we have sought to challenge both the notion of an ‘expert’ and the premise of the exercise.

Often overlooked is the practical expertise of activists and Indigenous people themselves, such as Kelly, who has been advocating for the repatriation of the Gweagal Spears for years. The Museum Remix is rather conspicuously pitched only at the general public, and makes no mention of previous or ongoing colonial disputes it is involved in.

To be clear, opening up the collections to the interpretations of the general public is an exciting step towards anti-elitism in museums. However, when not combined with the enfranchisement of BIPOC experts that have been working towards making these stories known for decades, it becomes a poor imitation of change.

Museum Remix: In Solidarity with the Tutuilan (audio only)

Editing by Tae Ateh; Voiceover by Izzy Collie-Cousins; Original words by Izzy Collie-Cousins & Tae Ateh; with words by Rodney Kelly, Beverly Carpenter of Oblique Arts, and protesters advocating for the repatriation of the Gweagal Spears.

Band of Protesters: Rodney Kelly (digeridoo), Banjo Nick Rambles (voice, banjo and percussion), Gene Thunderbolt McCarthy (electric guitar). Tae Ateh (ranting and percussion)

TRANSCRIPT:

PROTESTORS:                 (chanting) Thieves! Liars! Thieves! Liars!
                                            Thieves! Liars!
                                            (continuous banjo & digeridoo music)
                                           Trinity!

VOICEOVER:                    Somewhere on a shelf a person sits amongst
                                              the remnants of lives gone by, oceans away.
                                              This trophy-case is one in a forest of many
                                              polished, categorised silos, each made unique
                                              by the particular uniformity of its fragments.
                                              While eyes darting through the silence might
                                              miss those of this Tutuilan, a moment’s
                                              contemplation reveals our ghostly reflection
                                              next to theirs. Their physicality is more certain
                                              than our glass-bound reflection.

PROTESTORS:                  (singing during VOICEOVER)
                                              Two hundred and forty-eight years!
Give back the Gweagal Spears!
                                              Two hundred and forty-eight years!
                                              Give back the Gweagal Spears!

                                            (music & chanting stops)

BEVERLEY CARPENTER: How does it make you feel when you see this
                                       whole museum?

RODNEY KELLY:       Ah, you know, it makes me a bit angry –
                                              because my culture’s just confined to these
                                              little parts here from my area, and we’ve got
                                              other different tribal stuff here from other
                                              tribes. You look around the room and there’s
                                              so much stuff from everywhere, and nobody’ll
                                              ever come here to learn the true history about
                                              these artefacts. They're just going to look at
                                              them as spears, as wooden objects. Back home,
                                              if we had them in our museum, I guarantee
                                              every time somebody views them spears
                                              they're gonna know what happened that day,
                                              who made ‘em, and they’re actually going to
                                              hear the story from the descendants of the
                                              people who were there that day. So that’s
                                              gonna be an amazing history lesson for the
                                              many people who are gonna walk into our
                                              museum back home and view these items.

VOICEOVER:             (overlapping with RODNEY KELLY)
                                              Without me, I’m not here, you are
                                              Dead eyes, white lies
                                              Don’t gaze at me
                                              I’m not a man, I’m not an exhibit
                                              misgendered, misplaced, mistraced
                                              You stole me and locked me away
                                              You cut me off and cut pieces off me and you
                                              stand here and look at me
                                              But I am not an object
                                              I am not a man, I am not yours
                                               This is not human or mineral or vegetable
                                              I am not something you can contain or
                                              understand without my whole presence
                                              Without me, I’m not here, you are
                                              Dead eyes, white lies
                                               Don’t gaze at me
                                              I’m not a man, I’m not an exhibit
                                              misgendered, misplaced, mistraced
                                              You stole me and locked me away
                                              You cut me off and cut pieces off me and you
                                               stand here and look at me
                                              I’m not an object
                                              I am not a man I am not yours
                                              I am not, I’m not, and I’m not an object, and I’m -

VOICEOVER:             What I see here is hair bound and unbound.
                                              The fetishization of a single, defining feature
                                              of an entire person, because the western
                                              explorer found it strange. What we don’t see is
                                              attention to detail in accurately representing
                                              this person's gender. We know that they were
                                              likely fa’afafine, and yet we still describe them -

RODNEY KELLY:       (overlapping with VOICEOVER)
                                              […] get what they deserve because they’re
                                              really significant items and they’re one of a
                                              kind. They're so important to our culture and
                                              to the survival of our culture. In a lot of areas
                                              it is under threat. [In] some places we’re
                                              slowly starting to regain our language and our
                                              toolmaking processes. But something like
                                              these spears, having them back home, they’re
                                              gonna kickstart so much more for the public
                                              of Australia. Everybody knows that Australia
                                              has a lot of, the government’s got a lot of racist
                                              policies.

VOICEOVER:             (overlapping with RODNEY KELLY)
                                              Instead, they gaze through us, as they will
                                              have gazed through visitors many times
                                             before. They have transgressed borders and
                                              timelines to look at us here, the English
                                              Channel lapping at the confines of the
                                              photograph; the gentle slope of Samoan sand
                                              meeting the unending expanse of ocean is a
                                              distant and hazy memory. Ever within John
                                              Davis’ studio, solely for the western beholder,
                                              characterised by othered attributes that would
                                              be familiar at home, but, here, must be singled
                                              out in ways we can understand: they sit, and
                                              they stare.

PROTESTERS:           (singing during VOICEOVER)
                                              Two hundred and forty-eight years!
Give back the Gweagal Spears!
                                              Two hundred and forty-eight years,
                                              Give back the Gweagal Spears!

Open Letter to Cambridge Museums

W2co498GGp — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 11:58:02 +0000

Museums play a key role in the decolonisation of our field. In this open letter, we address the essential actions that the museums in Cambridge must take in order to promote equity and address their colonial legacies.

Please add your name and also see our page of links to open letters and petitions

Click to read full letter and add your name

BLACK LIVES MATTER

W2co498GGp — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 08:24:56 +0000

Decolonise Art History was created to dismantle the legacy of European imperialism that was motivated and justified by racism. Anti-racism has always been a part of this group’s agenda. We support the BLM movement and the current protests.

We have been working on a list of resources, including educational resources, petitions, organisations to support and donate to, some cultural resources, mental health links and links to further compilations of resources for tackling systemic, institutional and other forms of racism and white-centrism.

We have also included some other important links in this post. Please check them out and use them to help direct your efforts in fighting racism.

Practical ways to help BLM in the UK checklist (please go through and act!): https://docs.google.com/…/1x65xLdIUDWMUl4_nkuD-EeP98U…/edit…

Links to CUSU BME campaign posts, with links to petitions, articles and other educational and action resources:

https://www.facebook.com/CambridgeBME/posts/1492750537601746

https://www.facebook.com/CambridgeBME/posts/1494820150728118

Open Letter to the University of Cambridge on Anti-racism, written by CUSU BME campaign: https://docs.google.com/…/1D2VnQ2z-77b-r-SIP4OkAwCco9…/edit…

Link to Resources compilation for antiracism and fighting racial injustice doc by Decolonise Art History: https://docs.google.com/…/1GiYWCJiQeGZqrO8WF02JY41tK0…/edit…

#BlackLivesMatter

Twilight of the Idols

W2co498GGp — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 08:04:57 +0000