Opening the Cabinet of Curiosities Part II

Exploring the links between slave-ownership and the V&A

About the Project

Opening the Cabinets of Curiosities Part II seeks to uncover some of the unexplored histories of the V&A, in many respects a large-scale 19th century ‘cabinet of curiosity’. It does this by examining the links between British slave-ownership, collecting and the development of the Museum.

Context

Absentee slave-owners used their wealth, rooted in the exploitation of enslaved people, to help reshape nineteenth-century Britain. Found across the length and breadth of the country, they were aristocrats and MPs, clergymen and aged widows, collectors and connoisseurs. The legacies of this history continue to shape the world we live in, and the museums we visit, today.

Aim

This project investigates the links between British slave-ownership and the development of the V&A. In particular, it explores absentees who used their wealth to invest in collections in the metropole. Objects that were once in the collections of absentee slave-owners are now dotted throughout the Museum, found in almost every gallery. But the violent histories embodied in these objects are rarely acknowledged. The project thus also raises the question of how, in a twenty-first century museum, we can confront and engage with this violent and sometimes uncomfortable history.

Outcomes

In addition to talks, tours and academic publications, one of the main outcomes of this project is a piece of artistic work. Poet, writer and artist-in-residence Victoria Adukwei Bulley has responded to this research to create a series of five films entitled A Series of Unfortunate Inheritances. In these films Bulley unearths the names, lives and experiences of individuals whose enslavement is ineffably tied to items held within the museum’s collections. She uses text, film and photography to provide a human face to this history.

Project updates

15 December 2017

VARI Artist in Residence Call: Opening the Cabinet, Histories of Slavery and Slave-Ownership

We are delighted to announce our new call for artists who are keen to engage with the histories of slavery and slave-ownership that are ‘hidden in plain sight’ within in the museum, as part of...
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16 March 2017

The Cabinet of Curiosities: Reflections on modern art historical thinking

If you, like me, are curious about cabinets of curiosity, the inaugural Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Lecture on the history of collecting was a key date. Given by esteemed art historian and authority on the...
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16 March 2017

VARI Cabinets Workshop travels from art to science through a magic door

The past few days have seen VARI focusing on Opening the Cabinet of Curiosities — one of our key research projects.  Dr Lisa Skogh and Professor Bill Sherman led an international workshop looking at the...
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The Team

Dr Marta Ajmar

Deputy Director of VARI

Dr Hannah Young

Public Engagement Fellow

Artists in Residence

Events

Troubling Objects: interrogating collecting and collections

Troubling Objects brought together academics, artists, activists and museum professionals to share ideas about how we can rethink both histories of collecting and the representation, interpretation and display of historical collections.

Header image: Still, 'What Was I But Factory', Victoria Adukwei Bulley, 2018, London. © Victoria Adukwei Bulley