WEBWIRE – Monday, March 11, 2024
This week Tate Britain unveilsViva Voce, a new film installation by renowned British artist Keith Piper. It is the first artwork to be commissioned in response to Rex Whistlers 1927 muralThe Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meatsand is projected onto two screens suspended in the centre of the room containing the mural. Pipers work directly addresses Whistlers artistic intentions and explores the social and political context of 1920s Britain, inviting us to consider how and why historic images are made and what we can learn from them today. It opens to the public on Tuesday 12 March 2024 and is free to visit.
Viva Voceis a Latin phrase meaning by word of mouth and is the name given to an oral examination in which students are questioned about their work. An academic and lecturer as well as an artist, Piper commented I was struck by how young Whistler was. As a teacher, I speak to young artists all the time, questioning them about their practice. The film imagines such a conversation between Whistler and a fictional academic, Professor Shepherd. She asks Whistler about his mural and challenges him on the racist imagery contained within it.
Over the course of the film, they discuss Whistlers other work from the period as well as a pamphlet written by Whistlers close friend Edith Olivier (18721948). The pamphlet describes the narrative for the mural, including parts of the painting which were never completed.
Viva Vocealso considers the time and place in which Whistler was working. It includes archival footage of Black soldiers during the First World War, Black American performers in 1920s London, the Races in Residence displays at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition, and the 1926 General Strike. Piper said I want to give a sense of how and why the mural exists.Viva Voceinvites us to carefully examine historical images, the motives of those who made them and the context in which they were produced.
Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain, said Pipers work takes a brilliantly simple and poetic idea to stage an imagined conversation between a 1920s artist and a 2020s academic and turns it into something truly expansive, touching on a host of overlapping histories and overlooked connections. By simultaneously rooting the mural in the past and confronting it in the present,Viva Vocewill no doubt inspire many more conversations about the relationship between the two.
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Listings information
Keith Piper:Viva Voce
Open from 12 March 2024
Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG
Open daily 10.0018.00
Admission free
More information attate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain
Follow @Tate
About Keith Piper
Keith Piper (b.1960) rose to prominence in the 1980s as a founder member of the BLK Art Group. He has gone on to stage solo exhibitions at museums and galleries across the UK, USA and Europe. His output as an artist ranges from painting and photography to video and digital media. Piper also works as a curator, researcher and academic and is a Professor at Middlesex University, London.
Podcast: The Art of Change
Hear from artists Keith Piper and Larry Achiampong, art historian Nikki Frater, playwright Jacqueline Malcolm and activist Jen Reid. Listen attate.org.uk/art-of-changefrom Tuesday 12 March 2024.