‘The eyed side of the glass’: transnational curation and the politics of exhibiting the Empire in a post-imperial world

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article examines the politics of display behind situating and exhibiting imperialism in a post-imperial world. It takes the ‘Artist and Empire’ exhibition, organised in London and Singapore from 2015 to 2017, as a case study to explore how cosmopolitan and communitarian sensibilities intersect in contemporary gallery spaces. The travelling exhibition on the British Empire allowed for both the circulation of cultural objects and their appropriation within local contexts. The acquiring and jettisoning of objects, as the exhibition travelled from the post-imperial hub to the post-colony, meant a calibration of its frames of reference. As against a panoramic view and a sense of remove the London event attempted to create, the Singapore chapter was all about subjectivity and immersion. How were such inflections in meaning made evident through the art the two events displayed? The article attempts a postcolonial reading of these shifts in curatorial intent. It argues that the historical and locational sensibilities these reveal help pose larger questions about how the Empire is variously perceived by the agents who have articulated it in different political contexts.