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素描来询问英国对在讲英语的加勒比海地区组织黑人权力组织(1967-1976)的反应，这些组织被记录在国家档案馆外交和联邦事务部(FCO)的收藏中。在英国外交部收藏的唱片中，有72张标签为“黑力量”的唱片(1967-1976)。它们是一系列内部通信和情报报告，记录了英国对英语加勒比海地区的黑色力量组织的监视。其中许多记录是在过去十年内公开的，在某些情况下是在2020年才公开。这项研究将采取以实践为主导的跨学科方法来研究理论：从后殖民的角度看待记忆、档案和文化理论，并从本质上是黑人酷儿的视角。通过“视觉解压”的过程，本研究将建立一个关键概念的框架，包括Hanchard(2008)和Scott(2008)对“黑色记忆”和“状态记忆”的并列。这项研究将专门针对州档案馆，质疑从州记录中可以获得哪些其他地方可能没有的知识。我的目标是创作一部反映黑人激进传统的作品，它使用视觉艺术实践作为一种手段，参与位于状态记忆和记忆之外的批判性对话。绘画和素描将被用来质疑英国外交部的记录可能揭示的关于英国政府对黑人权力组织的反应，否则这些信息在国家记忆中被掩盖了。

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.