As Long as There Were Any Roads to Amnesia and Anaesthesia Still to be Explored: Contemporary Artistic Reflections on the Intertwined Memories of British Imperial History, Trees and Place
This article critically examines contemporary art installations by two British artists responding to two major memory sites of British imperial and national history: 1) Trafalgar Square, one of the biggest squares in central London, a former imperial crossroads, surrounded by Canada House and South...
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| Udgivet i: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprog: | Anglais |
| Udgivet: |
Angles
2025
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| Fag: | |
| Online adgang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| id |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_8742 |
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| record_format |
openedition |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
art contemporain Gallaccio Anya Palmer Angela lieu de mémoire histoire environnementale empire britannique arbre tate britain trafalgar square contemporary art Gallaccio Anya Palmer Angela memory site environmental history british empire tree tate britain trafalgar square |
| spellingShingle |
art contemporain Gallaccio Anya Palmer Angela lieu de mémoire histoire environnementale empire britannique arbre tate britain trafalgar square contemporary art Gallaccio Anya Palmer Angela memory site environmental history british empire tree tate britain trafalgar square Ouillon, Laura As Long as There Were Any Roads to Amnesia and Anaesthesia Still to be Explored: Contemporary Artistic Reflections on the Intertwined Memories of British Imperial History, Trees and Place |
| description |
This article critically examines contemporary art installations by two British artists responding to two major memory sites of British imperial and national history: 1) Trafalgar Square, one of the biggest squares in central London, a former imperial crossroads, surrounded by Canada House and South Africa House and only steps away from Admiralty Arch, the former official residence of the First Sea Lord ; and 2) Tate Britain, a gallery dedicated to the showcasing of national art, named after, founded and funded by Sir Henry Tate (1819-1899), an English millionaire philanthropist whose wealth derived from the industry of sugar refinery. Seven ancient English oaks made up Anya Gallaccio’s as long as there were any roads to amnesia and anaesthesia still to be explored (2002), while Angela Palmer’s public work, Ghost Forest (2009), showcased ten giant exotic stumps imported from a former British colony, Ghana. Both installations exhibited the bodies of dead trees as their main physical, symbolic and ideological material to activate and reflect on the collective memory of the British Empire, whose expansion long relied on timber production, including for shipbuilding. Drawing from memory studies, postcolonial studies and ecocritical art history, the article probes the intertwining of the repressed memories of British imperial environmental history, trees and place in these two artworks which both stage collective mnemonic experiences articulating Britons’ conflicted relationships with their own past. |
| author |
Ouillon, Laura |
| author_facet |
Ouillon, Laura |
| author_sort |
Ouillon, Laura |
| title |
As Long as There Were Any Roads to Amnesia and Anaesthesia Still to be Explored: Contemporary Artistic Reflections on the Intertwined Memories of British Imperial History, Trees and Place |
| title_short |
As Long as There Were Any Roads to Amnesia and Anaesthesia Still to be Explored: Contemporary Artistic Reflections on the Intertwined Memories of British Imperial History, Trees and Place |
| title_full |
As Long as There Were Any Roads to Amnesia and Anaesthesia Still to be Explored: Contemporary Artistic Reflections on the Intertwined Memories of British Imperial History, Trees and Place |
| title_fullStr |
As Long as There Were Any Roads to Amnesia and Anaesthesia Still to be Explored: Contemporary Artistic Reflections on the Intertwined Memories of British Imperial History, Trees and Place |
| title_full_unstemmed |
As Long as There Were Any Roads to Amnesia and Anaesthesia Still to be Explored: Contemporary Artistic Reflections on the Intertwined Memories of British Imperial History, Trees and Place |
| title_sort |
as long as there were any roads to amnesia and anaesthesia still to be explored: contemporary artistic reflections on the intertwined memories of british imperial history, trees and place |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2025 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/13ofv https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/8742 |
| _version_ |
1877292090960904192 |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_8742 https://doi.org/10.4000/13ofv urn:doi:10.4000/13ofv en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/8742 2025-04-03T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/13ofv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ As Long as There Were Any Roads to Amnesia and Anaesthesia Still to be Explored: Contemporary Artistic Reflections on the Intertwined Memories of British Imperial History, Trees and Place Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Ouillon, Laura art contemporain Gallaccio Anya Palmer Angela lieu de mémoire histoire environnementale empire britannique arbre tate britain trafalgar square contemporary art Gallaccio Anya Palmer Angela memory site environmental history british empire tree tate britain trafalgar square This article critically examines contemporary art installations by two British artists responding to two major memory sites of British imperial and national history: 1) Trafalgar Square, one of the biggest squares in central London, a former imperial crossroads, surrounded by Canada House and South Africa House and only steps away from Admiralty Arch, the former official residence of the First Sea Lord ; and 2) Tate Britain, a gallery dedicated to the showcasing of national art, named after, founded and funded by Sir Henry Tate (1819-1899), an English millionaire philanthropist whose wealth derived from the industry of sugar refinery. Seven ancient English oaks made up Anya Gallaccio’s as long as there were any roads to amnesia and anaesthesia still to be explored (2002), while Angela Palmer’s public work, Ghost Forest (2009), showcased ten giant exotic stumps imported from a former British colony, Ghana. Both installations exhibited the bodies of dead trees as their main physical, symbolic and ideological material to activate and reflect on the collective memory of the British Empire, whose expansion long relied on timber production, including for shipbuilding. Drawing from memory studies, postcolonial studies and ecocritical art history, the article probes the intertwining of the repressed memories of British imperial environmental history, trees and place in these two artworks which both stage collective mnemonic experiences articulating Britons’ conflicted relationships with their own past. Cet article examine de manière critique les installations artistiques contemporaines de deux artistes britanniques ayant investi deux lieux de mémoire majeurs de l'histoire impériale et nationale britannique : 1) la place de Trafalgar, l'une des plus grandes du centre de Londres, ancien carrefour impérial, entourée par la Maison du Canada et de la Maison de l’Afrique du Sud et à quelques pas seulement de l’Arche de l’Amirauté, l'ancienne résidence officielle du Premier Lord de l’Amirauté ; et 2) la Tate Britain, musée où s’expose une importante collection d’art britannique et qui doit son nom actuel à son fondateur, Sir Henry Tate (1819-1899), millionnaire philanthrope anglais qui fit fortune dans l'industrie du raffinage de sucre. Dans l’œuvre as long as there were any roads to amnesia and anaesthesia still to be explored (2002), l’artiste Anya Gallaccio donne à voir sept chênes anglais bicentenaires ; dans Ghost Forest (2009), ce sont dix souches d’arbres exotiques gigantesques, importées d'une ancienne colonie britannique, le Ghana, qu’Angela Palmer offre au regard des passants. Avec des arbres morts pour principal matériau physique, symbolique et idéologique, ces deux installations réactivent et réfléchissent (à) la mémoire collective de l'Empire britannique, dont l'expansion a longtemps été tributaire de la production de bois, notamment pour la construction navale. S'inspirant des études sur la mémoire, des études postcoloniales et de l'histoire de l'art écocritique, cet article examine les liens entre la mémoire refoulée de l'histoire environnementale impériale britannique, les arbres et les lieux dans ces deux œuvres d'art qui mettent toutes deux en scène des expériences mnémoniques collectives qui articulent les relations conflictuelles des Britanniques avec leur propre passé. |