Angela's interview

1. Why did you want to be involved in this photo shoot?

As part of the steering group for this project I have lived with Beckford and Cass, their miss-deeds, culpability, and shameful disregard for human life for nearly two years. Taking part was a way of removing them from my consciousness, of placing them out of sight and mind, where they belong.

2. How did it make you feel to be involved in this photoshoot?

Actually, there was a sense of serene power in being able to decide how I would interact with the history of the space. I was also acutely aware that this power was not afforded to my ancestors.

3. What would you have liked to have said to Beckford and Cass or those who facilitated their involvement in enslaving Africans if you could have done so when they were alive?

I am going to decline to answer this one.

4. Tell us about your outfit and the significance of the props that you used?

I chose to look backwards and forwards at the same time. My ‘sun’ dress has a sheen which glistens in the light, it is a dress to be seen in, a dress made for the leisured and unhurried. Through the print it looks backwards to Africa, which is my genetic inheritance, but this contemporary dress by an African designer is very much of the present. In it I can be anyone.

The books perform a similar function. These works of historical fact and critical fabulation¹ help us all to reach an almost invisible past and lives which were deemed unworthy of a backstory.

5. The Revealing the City's Past project is about reinterpreting these two statues in light of the fact that they are not being removed under the Government's 'retain and explain' directive. Do you think projects like this are important to you?

This is a tricky question. I think as the project progressed, I realised that ‘retain and explain’ forces uncomfortable and damaging compromises. The very act of ‘explaining’ why prominent figures of the slaveocracy should be retained feels like an act of complicity particularly whilst the object, with all of its conferred power remains in situ. I think this project as one of the first, was important as an exercise in understanding what the directive means in practice, not just in terms of the optics of the final reinterpretation but in terms of what that re-interpretation cost. Whilst the emotion of removal captures the headlines, it is important to understand that this sedimentary approach to contested heritage (the layering of one interpretation alongside or on top of the original) has significant affective impact on those explaining what must be retained.

6. What do you hope the City of London Corporation does next to make their spaces more relevant and accessible to more people?

I think this question starts in the wrong place. My question would be does the City of London Corporation want to make their spaces more relevant and accessible? The physicality of the building, the archaic customs and practice and the general reverential ‘hush’ conspire to exclude. Therefore, change will be an uphill battle which cannot be won from the ‘outside in’.

References

¹Hartman, S. (2008). Venus in Two Acts. Small Axe, [online] 12(2), pp.1–14.

Guest interviews feature voices on topics relevant to our collections and public spaces. Guest interviews do not necessarily reflect the views of the City Corporation.

Artwork ©Ayanna Sankara