Slavery artwork stirs debate for envoys to take on board
AN ARTWORK representing slavery and imperialism will be put in British embassies as part of a scheme to promote the UK’S image abroad.
The print was commissioned with a £50,000 endowment to join the Government Art Collection (GAC), a selection of 14,000 works intended to project UK culture and soft power.
British embassies around the world will display the artwork, which represents “slavery and imperial trade” and the “wrongs” of colonialism.
Lubaina Himid, a Turner Prize winner who was born in Zanzibar, was chosen to produce a piece for international display, and said it was aimed at “opening up conversations” about history.
The print titled Old Boat, New Weather, which will have 30 copies distributed across Britain’s diplomatic missions, depicts a sailing boat resting in port in the shadow of three statues.
The artwork, carrying the image of a shack used by “freed slaves in Carolina”, was unveiled at Downing Street yesterday by Julia Lopez, a newly appointed culture minister. She said it would be “enjoyed by visitors to the collection’s many displays in Government buildings across the world”.
Penny Johnson, the GAC director, said the work, created in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests and reappraisals of UK heritage, would contribute “to the promotion of British art and cultural diplomacy”.
The prints will be made available to embassies during redisplays of artwork, with Britain’s missions in Paris and Washington likely to be the first to receive them.
Miss Himid said she was surprised to have been approached for the commission, but hoped the themes contained in the artwork would help inform the decisions of UK diplomats.
She said the piece, with maritime and mercantile motifs, “tells a story of forced migrations, mass upheavals and the very real loss of family and friends”.
She added: “We cannot undo the wrongs of enslavement or the legacies of colonialism. But we can all attempt to learn from the warnings.”
Ms Himid wanted to create a work with “subtle” nods to British history that would encourage conversation, rather than creating a deliberately provocative piece.
She added that while her work was about “opening up debate” about British history, she is “old-fashioned” when it comes to retaining monuments which have come under scrutiny for links to the UK’S imperial past, saying toppling statues sets a “dangerous” precedent.