Rants & Epiphanies
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“Wisdom that will bless I, who live in the spiral joy born at the utter end of a black prayer.” • — Keiji Haino
“The subject of human creativity is not an ethnic-centric, but a composite subject.” • — Anthony Braxton
“… It is not my mode of thought that has caused my misfortunes, but the mode of thought of others.” • — The Marquis de Sade

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Alternative museum tours explore colonial loot, biased narratives || Aditya Iyer | Al Jazeera




Alice Procter, an art historian, says she launched the Uncomfortable Art Tours in 2013 to ‘ onfront the official narratives we’re told’ [Aditya Iyer/Al Jazeera]

London, England - "The South Sea Company did not trade in fish,“ says Alice Procter, as she shows visitors around Queen’s House, a maritime museum in Greenwich, southeast London. “They traded in something far more valuable to the English monarchy - slaves.”
“Museums provide almost a Trojan horse type of space to confront the official narratives we’re told,” says Procter, who started the tours in 2013. 
“I started them out of a sense of frustration over the lack of self-awareness that white British people have over their pasts and history - and that lack of attention is part of the shadow of white supremacy and racism that’s hanging over our heads right now.”
Museums provide a biased view of the past, she claims.
“While museums continue to argue that they are neutral spaces, the fact is that they are not. There is always one side of the story that has been privileged over the other in these spaces, and we need to be more honest and open about that.”
This challenge to the official narrative comes at a time when Europe is facing a renewed debate over returning African art, much of which was acquired as colonial-era loot.




A brave woman, In a world full of cowards …





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