Imperial Connections: Re-examining Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire

柯曾勋爵这样描述加尔各答总督官邸（现为加尔各答拉吉巴万），它以凯德尔斯顿厅为模型，“毫无疑问是最好的政府官邸……（寇松，1925）。这一说法强调了帝国与Curzon祖籍之间的内在联系，以及Curzon对Kedleston建筑优势的信念。Curzon对Kedleston风格的判断为我提供了这个项目的框架。风格可以被理解为努力定义“一个竞争环境”，或一个具有隐性规则的社会空间（Bourdieu, 1977,1992）。主张“差异”已被确定为一项关键的殖民战略（Hall, 2000, Rao, 2010, Qureshi, 2011, Barczewski 2014）。风格通过肯定和表达特定民族、种族、阶级或性别的规则来主张差异。结合档案研究，视觉和物体分析，以及基于人类学和社会学的物质文化方法，我的方法将探索经典的“家”场所与“东方”物体的集合之间的相互作用，关注风格的代理，作为衬托和框架。理解凯德尔斯顿在风格上的论点（例如，英国的罗马遗产），以及这些论点是如何以及为什么被出口到印度并在印度动员起来的，将有助于我们对寇松在他的藏品中所表现的物品、展示与权力、东方与西方之间的关系有一个新的理解。它还将提供上下文，以了解该系列在其每个化身中的后续展示。在这个经典化的框架内，占有和同化的紧张关系将是跟踪对象在整个获取、展示和接受过程中意义和自主性的转变的核心。作为一名装饰艺术策展人，我在历史建筑和博物馆工作了十多年，这为我提出的研究提供了基础。2017年，我参与策划了一场关于吉尔伯特收藏馆19世纪银质纪念章的展览。随后，我被邀请写一篇文章，将焦点从制作转移到之前研究的主题（Eatwell, 2015），以仔细研究其殖民历史。本文测试了上述观点：探索新古典主义葡萄酒冷却器如何通过其装饰来断言文化差异，制定社会差异，并声称殖民政府的优越性。作为一名擅长管理和参与具有公众参与成果的合作研究项目的博物馆专业人士，这个项目的学院方式非常吸引我。我在考陶尔德博物馆、维多利亚与阿尔伯特博物馆和其他地方的关系网将补充顾问团的关系网，并帮助我接触维多利亚与阿尔伯特博物馆的藏品。

Lord Curzon described the Governor's house in Calcutta (now Raj Bhavan, Kolkata), modelled on Kedleston Hall as, 'without doubt the finest Government House ... in the world' (Curzon, 1925). This statement highlights the inherent connections between empire and Curzon's ancestral seat, and Curzon's belief in Kedleston's architectural superiority. Curzon's judgement of Kedleston's style would provide my frame for this project.Style can be understood as working to define 'a playing field', or a social space with tacit rules (Bourdieu, 1977, 1992). Asserting 'difference' has been identified as a key colonial strategy (Hall, 2000, Rao, 2010, Qureshi, 2011, Barczewski 2014). Style asserts difference through affirming and expressing the rules of particular nationalities, races, classes or genders. Combining archival research, visual and object analysis, and material culture methods grounded in anthropology and sociology, my approach will explore the interaction between a classicizing 'home' locale, and a collection of 'Eastern' objects, concerned with the agency of style, as foil and frame.Understanding the arguments that Kedleston makes stylistically, (for example, for Britain's Roman inheritance) and how and why this was exported to and mobilised in India, would provide a new understanding of Curzon's take on the relationships between objects, display and power, orient and occident, as manifested in his collection. It will also provide the context in which to understand the collection's consequent display in each of its incarnations. Tensions of appropriation and assimilation within this classicising framework will be central to tracking the transformation of the objects' meanings and autonomy throughout the process of acquisition, display, and reception.My proposed research is underpinned by my record as a Curator of Decorative Arts with over a decade working in historic houses and museums. In 2017 I co-curated a display about a nineteenth-century silver testimonial in the Gilbert Collection. Subsequently, I was invited to write an article that shifted focus from making, the subject of previous research (Eatwell, 2015), to scrutinise its colonial history. This article tested the ideas described above: exploring how the neoclassical wine cooler asserted cultural difference through its ornament, enacting social difference and making claims for the superiority of the colonial government.As a museum professional adept at managing and contributing to collaborative research projects with public-engagement outcomes, the collegiate approach of this project greatly appeals to me. My networks from the Courtauld, the V&A and beyond would complement those of the advisory panel, and aid access to V&A objects.