P0STP0NED Monuments to slavery and freedom

Description

An event organised by Slavery and Freedom: Material and Visual Histories research network.

Postponed due to UCU industrial action. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Speakers

• Valda Jackson (Bristol)
• Harold Offeh (Royal College of Art)
• Kristy Warren (University of Lincoln)

Chair

Jake Subryan Richards (London School of Economics)

Abstract

This panel brings together perspectives from artists and historians regarding monuments to slavery and freedom. Ranging across Britain and the places affected by the British empire, this interdisciplinary event invites us to think about the meaning and power of monuments in the past, present, and future.

About the speakers

Valda Jackson is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and published writer. Jamaican born Jackson creates complex narratives, that reflect and interrogate our past and present. In 2021 she was shortlisted for the prestigious National Windrush Monument, Waterloo Station, London. Her work is about existence and survival, entitlement, and dignity, themes which extends into her Public Art practice and her collaborative practice Jackson and Harris where what is intrinsic and personal is made universal. Jackson has exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery, RWA Bristol and private galleries; lectured and presented papers at International Conferences in Universities across Europe. Jackson is writing her first novel and continues to work on this manuscript which was shortlisted for the Bath Spa Prize, 2021 by Janklow & Nesbit.

Harold Offeh is an artist working across performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice. Offeh is interested in the space created by the inhabiting or embodying of histories. He employs humour as a means to confront the viewer with historical narratives and contemporary culture. He recently completed a PhD by practice exploring the activation of Black Album covers through durational performance. Offeh has exhibited widely including at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Kettle’s Yard, Wysing Art Centre, Studio Museum Harlem, MAC VAL, France, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark and Art Tower Mito, Japan. He lives and works in Cambridge and London. In 2019, he was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists, the largest award of its kind in the UK. Offeh is a Tutor in MA Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art.

Kristy Warren is Lecturer in Black History at the University of Lincoln. She researches the social and political history of British colonialism in the Caribbean and the lingering legacies of this past in the region and the United Kingdom. Kristy has worked on a number of research projects. Most recently she was a research associate at the University of Leicester working on a collaborative project with the University of Guyana entitled ‘Mental Neurological and Substance Use Disorders in Guyana’s jails, 1825 to the present day.’ Other projects include the ‘Legacies of British-Slave Ownership’ project at UCL, and the ‘Common Cause’ and ‘Bigger Picture’ projects at the University Nottingham. She also works with cultural institutions to help create content and programming that better reflects the histories, experiences and desires of marginalised individuals and groups in the UK.

Jake Subryan Richards is Assistant Professor of History at the London School of Economics, and the lead external curator of a project investigating the history of Atlantic enslavement and empire at the University of Cambridge Museums.

This event is co-hosted by the Slavery & Freedom: Material and Visual Histories research network at CRASSH, University of Cambridge, and the Heritage and Colonialism Discussion Group at the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre, University of Cambridge. It has been organised with support from University of Cambridge Museums and CRASSH.