A New Home for a Growing Collection Dawn Ades British Academy - Flipbook - Page 11
DA: Yes, and it invites different
responses. It opens dialogue; in a very
subtle way. There’s a great deal to it and
one can bring so much to it.
SM: We both went to Hew’s studio
several times.
DA: Yes, we had a choice between
three different kinds of work; these new
pieces called Raw Materials, which had
not been exhibited in the UK before.
There were also the incredible series of
suspended boats.
SM: Armada, yes, was a series of
boats hung from a ceiling, representing
the movements of the slave trade.
SS: Is that where the conversation
with Hew started?
SM: Yes, we were looking for
something to hang from the ceiling
downstairs in the double-height space.
Rana Begum has recently completed
something is a similar way at Pallant
House Gallery.
SS: Yes, we know that piece well,as
we are working with the Gallery
currently. It brings an incredible
dynamism to the void of the historic
staircase.
SM: The Art Committee has a list of
works and artists to hopefully bring into
to the Collection to diversify and stay
relevant. We try to tie it too to what’s
going on in the wider Academy. The
Yinka Shonibare is an incredibly
important piece in that respect.
SS: It’s almost written into the
mission – the humanities. It’s got to be
broader.
The thing I was going to say, is how
well you connect the Collection and a
contemporary way of thinking, to the
rich history of this remarkable home on
Carlton House Terrace.
In fact the first meeting we ever had
here was with Sir David Cannadine,
who was the Academy’s President at the
time; we were asked to think of what we
could do with the building as part of a
feasibility study. He really wanted to
transform the basement. It was warren-
A New Home for a Growing Collection
like. It really needed regeneration.
DA: Ah yes! All the archive was
installed in little, vaulted rooms.
SS: We then went to see the
Archivist’s office for a briefing– she had
pinned up some amazing images of the
history of the building, the archive’s
treasures; she knew all the architectural
history but she was really into the social
history. The photographs of the rooms
in the war time, as a hospital, showing
how the use and social value changes
over time. They’ve changed so much!
The way we got stimulated in terms of
a design perspective, was through the
history of the building. The archives
study was so important to us. To
physically touch drawings of Nash,
Billeray & Blow, Lutyens, et al. was
amazing. You could really get the scale
and nature of the making and imagining
of the building.
I think people intuitively want to
engage with the history of the building;
it’s got something quite tangible where
you think, ‘Why is that there? Why did
that happen?’
Dawn, I know you’ve curated and
engaged with other organisations and
curated exhibitions in different kinds of
other spaces. How does this compare?
DA: I am always very aware of what a
huge difference it makes to a painting,
or to any work of art, in the way you
present them. It does not always look
the same. In my experience one moves
them around, and suddenly they look
right. But they can look very wrong. One
installation I like very much at the
moment, for example, in terms of things
in their spaces, is the collection of
ceramics here in the Fellows room.
Each space has its own character, as
does each piece, so to speak. Sometimes
it’s complicated. One needs to try out
different placings, and we have to
consider the size of a work in relation to
the scale of the rooms.
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