Public Art, Artefacts and Atlantic Slavery: Introduction
Public Art, Artefacts and Atlantic Slavery: Introduction
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公共艺术、文物和大西洋奴隶制：简介
DOI：
10.1080/01440390802027764
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发表时间：
2008
影响因子：
0.7
通讯作者：
J. Newman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Celeste;J. Newman
在过去，奴隶制纪念碑的问题是没有纪念碑。例如，就在1988年，遗产项目有限公司的总经理驳斥了奴隶制博物馆的想法，认为这是英国公众无法接受的。他断然拒绝了建造一座核反应堆的提议。除了史密森博物馆和威廉斯堡殖民地博物馆的一些开创性工作外，大西洋彼岸的寂静同样震耳欲聋。然而，在2007年，几乎每一家主要的大英博物馆都在纪念英国废除奴隶贸易200周年：维多利亚与阿尔卑斯博物馆、国家海事博物馆、国家美术馆、国家肖像美术馆、大英帝国和英联邦博物馆--更不用说其他活动了，包括在伦敦、斯旺西、赫尔、伯明翰、利物浦、布里斯托尔和纽卡斯尔泰恩河上的大型展览。有什么改变了吗？从20世纪80年代到今天，被认为具有影响力的因素包括：小说和电视连续剧《根》(1977)，大屠杀博物馆的影响(1979)，《荣耀》、《阿米斯塔德》和《宠儿》等电影(尽管最后两部电影票房惨淡)，制作精良的电视纪录片，以及更广泛地说，侧重于历史和证词的电视节目的增加，遗产旅游的兴起，以及从20世纪90年代末开始将历史作为一种休闲追求的发展。在某种意义上，历史已经成为一种供公众消费的产品。历史很畅销，特别是作为城市复兴的一种手段，与许多城市建立文化区有关。在2003年南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿的老奴隶市场博物馆开放之前，旅游执行主任曾出现在《今日美国》的封面上，手持一套生锈的棕色枷锁。这篇文章热情地提到了奴隶制历史上数十个新的博物馆项目。公共艺术品现在也同样受欢迎。圣高登斯纪念罗伯特·古尔德·肖和第54团(南北战争中招募的第一个黑人团)的著名纪念碑就是一个明显的例子。20年前，在波士顿寒冷的二月的一个寒冷的日子里，人们第一次看到它，它冰冷的青铜轮廓，正如罗伯特·洛厄尔所说，看起来像是粘在一起，就像奴隶制和废除奴隶制一样，2008年6月，第29卷，第2期，第135-150页
In the past the problem of the memorialisation of slavery was the absence of memorials. As recently as 1988, for example, the managing director of Heritage Projects Ltd. dismissed the very idea of a Museum of Slavery as unacceptable to the British public. He had rejected outright a proposal to build one. With the exception of some pioneering work by the Smithsonian, and Colonial Williamsburg, the silence on the other side of the Atlantic was equally deafening. In 2007, however, the bicentennial of the abolition of the British slave trade was commemorated by almost every major British museum: the V&A, National Maritime Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum – not to mention other events including major exhibitions in London, Swansea, Hull, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol and Newcastle Upon Tyne. What had changed? Factors cited as influential between the 1980s and today include: the novel and television series Roots (1977), the influence of the Holocaust Museum (1979), films such as Glory, Amistad and Beloved (though the two last named flopped at the box office), well-made television documentaries and, more generally, the increase in television programmes focused on history and testimony, the rise of heritage tourism and the development of history as a leisure pursuit from the late 1990s. History has become, in some senses, a product to be consumed by the public. And history sells well, especially as a means to urban regeneration, associated with the establishment of cultural quarters in many cities. Prior to the opening of the Old Slave Mart Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2003, the executive director of tourism was featured on the front of USA Today holding a set of rusty brown shackles. The article enthusiastically noted the dozens of new museum projects in the history of slavery. Public artworks now enjoy the same popularity. St Gaudens’ celebrated monument to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment (the first black regiment recruited in the Civil War) is an obvious case in point. First encountered twenty years ago on a frigid day in Boston’s freezing February, its chilly bronze contours did seem, as Robert Lowell phrased it, to stick ‘like Slavery and Abolition Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2008, pp. 135–150