Responding To The Archive: Mobilisation, Myth and Memory

这项以实践为基础的研究将使用绘画和绘图来询问英国对在讲英语的加勒比地区（1967-1976年）组织的黑色权力的反应，记录在国家档案馆外交和联邦事务部（FCO）收藏。有72个记录标记为“黑色力量”（1967年至1976年），在外交和联邦事务部的收藏。这是一系列内部通信和情报报告，记录了英国对加勒比地区英语国家组织的黑人权力的监视。其中许多记录在过去十年内公开，有些记录直到2020年才公开。本研究将采取跨学科的理论方法，以实践为主导：从后殖民的角度看待记忆，档案和文化理论，具有内在的黑人酷儿视角。通过“视觉解存档”的过程，这项研究将建立在一个关键概念的框架上，包括Hanchard（2008）和Scott（2008）对“黑色记忆”和“状态记忆”的并列。这项研究将专门回应国家档案，质疑什么知识可以从国家记录，可能不存在其他地方。我的目标是创造一个反映黑人激进传统的作品体，这种传统使用视觉艺术实践作为参与国家记忆和记忆之外的批判性对话的手段。绘画和绘画将被用来质疑英国外交部的记录可能揭示了英国政府对黑权组织的反应，否则在国家记忆中会被掩盖。

This practice-based study will use painting and drawing to interrogate Britain's response to Black Power organising in the English-speaking Caribbean (1967-1976), documented in The National Archives Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) collections. There are 72 records labelled 'BLACK POWER' (1967-1976), within the FCO collections. They are a series of internal communications and intelligence reports documenting Britain's surveillance of Black Power organising across the English-speaking Caribbean. Many of these records became publicly available within the last decade, and in some cases only in 2020.This research will take an interdisciplinary approach to theory, led by practice: regarding memory, archives and cultural theory from a postcolonial standpoint, with an inherently black queer perspective. Through a process of 'visual unarchiving' this study will build upon a framework of key concepts including Hanchard (2008) and Scott's (2008) juxtaposition of 'black memory' and 'state memory'. This research will respond specifically to the state archive, questioning what knowledge can be gained from state records that may not be present elsewhere. I aim to create a body of work that reflects a black radical tradition which uses visual artistic practice as a means of engaging in critical dialogues situated outside of state memory and remembering. Painting and drawing will be utilised to question what the FCO records may reveal about the British government's response to Black Power organising, that is otherwise obscured in state memory.