(11 Apr 2024)
UK ART INSTALLATION

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

RESTRICTIONS:

LENGTH: 6:41

ASSOCIATED PRESS
London, UK – 11 April 2024

1. Various of ‘Decolonised Structures (Churchill)’, 2023, a sculpture of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill by Yinka Shonibare, on display at his solo exhibition ‘Suspended States’ at Serpentine Gallery
2. Wide of Churchill sculpture and ‘Decolonised Structures (Roberts)’, 2022, of Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, a decorated 19th century British Army officer
3. Various of ‘Decolonised Structures (Queen Victoria)’, 2022, British monarch
4. Various of ‘Decolonised Structures (Clive)’, 2022, of Sir Robert Clive, first British administrator of Bengal
5. Various of artist Yinka Shonibare posing for photographs
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Yinka Shonibare, artist:
"People are talking about the idea of actually knocking statues down because of the colonial history of those figures. And I felt that actually the best approach is not to actually knock them down, in the same way that you wouldn't go into a library and start burning the books you didn't like, you know? So I thought that it's actually better to preserve history and for people to actually understand what people did, what Queen Victoria did, what Churchill did. And my approach really is to actually improve them, to make them more beautiful."

7. Various of ‘Decolonised Structures (Napier)’, 2022, Sir Charles Napier who led British occupation of Sindh
8. Various of ‘Decolonised Structures (Frere)’, 2022, Sir Henry Frere, a British colonial administrator who was appointed Governor of Bombay and High Commissioner for Southern Africa
9. Tilt up of ‘Decolonised Structures (Kitchener)’, 2022, Herbert Kitchener who commanded the British Army in Egypt, Sudan, India and Southern Africa during the Second AngloBoer War
10. Various of Kitchener sculpture
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Yinka Shonibare, artist:
"I think human beings are very complicated. No one is just a villain or no one is just good. And I think that's what's very important about those debates because people are very complex. And also, somebody who lived in the 19th century is not the same as the person living today. And you can't really conflate ideas or the values of the 19th century with our values. We are different people. So it's important that we understand them in the context in which they existed."

12. Various of woman filming ‘The War Library’, 2024, 5,270 books wrapped in Dutch wax print cotton, includes books about wars linked to imperialism and peace treaties throughout history
13. Various of books
14. Tilt down of book titled ‘Angolan Civil War’
15. Various of woman filming ‘The War Library’
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Yinka Shonibare, artist:
"The point of The War Library is actually amnesia, to expose our amnesia, to show that we always repeat the same thing over and over again. And also the importance of the archives, the importance of memory, and to also see that actually, we've had many, many peace treaties and we've tried to resolve a lot of the conflicts, but for some reason we keep going back to the same place."

17. Various of ‘Sanctuary City’, models of various buildings that have been used as places of refuge for persecuted people and vulnerable groups
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Yinka Shonibare, artist:

19. Various of ‘Creatures of the Mappa Mundi, Bonnacon’, 2018, quilt depicting mythical creature that was purportedly from Asia
20. Various of ‘Creatures of the Mappa Mundi, Mandragora’, 2018, quilt depicting a plant which was supposed to be a man whose screams were supposed to be deadly






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