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Right, from top The Henry Florence Memorial Hall at RIBA; Denis Dunlop working in his studio on the panels of a screen representing the fauna, industries, people and flora of the five Dominions
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS
Leading institutions are slowly finding meaningful ways to reckon with their problematic pasts. Veronica Simpson is delighted to find the RIBA joining them, with an exhibition that bodes well for its ambitions for greater inclusivity and sustainability
IN PREPARATION for a major refurbishment kicking off next year, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is taking a closer look at the architecture of the institution itself. In an exhibition aptly called Raise the Roof: Building for Change, it is lifting the lid on some of the narratives that are literally embedded in its landmark, Grade II listed HQ at 66 Portland Place.
Never mind the high pomp of the neoclassical façade – a building Te Guardian’s Oliver Wainwright wittily described as ‘part Egyptian tomb, part masonic temple’ – far more toxic narratives are displayed inside, in
particular the Jarvis Mural in the grand auditorium; scuffed and faded you could be forgiven for not having noticed it. It was conceived, as was the building, in the 1930s, probably the final decade of Britain’s confidence in its ongoing global dominance. At its centre is a map of Britain, surmounted by a parliament of architects, and ringed by imperial buildings, from government palaces in Pretoria and New Delhi to the old parliament of Canberra, all designed by RIBA members. Around the mural’s edges, seemingly subservient natives are depicted semi-naked along with tropical flora and fauna.
Left, from top Indian- born artist and designer Arinjoy Sen has created a rainbow-bright alternative to the Jarvis Mural that places the indigenous subjects of the original centre stage in a carnival of hope; architect and designer Giles Tettey Nartey, who grew up in Ghana, has reacted to the Dominion Screen with beautifully curved stools carved from the same Canadian pine but stained black
Opposite page Thandi Loewenson's Blacklight
Tandi Loewenson, Zimbabwe-born architectural designer and researcher, has described it as ‘one of the most racist things I’ve ever seen in my life’. Tanks to RIBA curator Margaret Cubbage, Loewenson, along with three other architects and artists, has been commissioned to come up with a response that interrogates the building’s imagery and exposes its problematic origins. Loewenson’s work focuses not just on the colonial architecture that is referenced on the screen but the extractive infrastructure that has had an even worse impact. Her work, titled Blacklight, shows a layering of images etched into graphite panels. Over the triumphant colonial Zambian image from the Jarvis screen she has laid a 1921 drawing of the Broken Hill lead and zinc mine in Kabwe, Zambia, one of the first colonial mines and now one of the most toxic sites on the planet. She has also scribbled in graphite a desired erasure over these symbols, something she says she would like to be allowed to do on the actual screen, though its listing makes the Art Deco interiors sacrosanct.
Raise the Roof: Building for
Change runs until 21 September 2024
More info on the RIBA HQ refurbishment can be found here:
architecture.com/ about/House-of- Architecture
What this work makes clear is that the territories and people depicted in the Jarvis Mural – and also the Florence Hall Dominion Screen, an equally problematic, carved timber panel elsewhere in the building – are being proudly displayed as resources for UK enrichment and trade, extractive capitalism writ large. Says Cubbage: ‘Te commissioned work asks questions around these resources and who and what is impacted.’
Architect and designer Giles Tettey Nartey, who grew up in Ghana, has reacted to the Dominion Screen with beautifully curved stools carved from the same Canadian pine but stained black. Tese loose components can be arranged and reconfigured as desired – a fluidity that resonates with the conversational shifts emerging in the profession around
ALL IMAGES: AGNESE SANVITO
ARCHITECTURAL PRESS ARCHIVE / RIBA COLLECTIONS
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