Dreading the Map artwork taking shape courtesy of Sonia E Barrett
The Map Room
The Society is delighted to be a partner of the Creative approaches to race and (in)security in the Caribbean and the UK (CARICUK) research project, which aims to transform discussions about race and anti-racism in UK higher education institutions.
Led by Dr Pat Noxolo, the AHRC funded EDI engagement project brings together artists and educators to provoke, participate and transform discussions, redefining race as an (in)security and encouraging education institutions to actively participate in anti-racist learning and transformation.
CARICUK has three elements. The first, the provocation, will involve three Black women artists each producing an art installation encouraging public conversations about how race can be understood as an (in)security. The second will draw students and teachers into the discussion, and will involve developing a range of online learning resources which will encourage young people to produce their own artworks about Caribbean and racialised (in)securities. Finally, short films will record young Black people engaging with the Society’s building and archival materials, in order to think about what tangible institutional changes can be made in the short and long term.
At the end of this month, visual artist Sonia E Barrett will be installing an original artwork at the Society’s building in South Kensington. Titled ‘Dreading the Map’, the sculpture will draw on surplus maps of the Caribbean and East Africa from our Collections and use Black hair techniques to remake and reclaim what they represent.
Barrett said of the piece: “As a map-lective we will reconfigure the map and create a six square metre work that will slowly and carefully explode the map over a number of days in the Map Room.”
Director of the Society, Professor Joe Smith, said: “We are really excited to be a partner to CARICUK, which has the potential to catalyse critical discussions and change at the Society. We are in the early stages of a significant project to redesign our building in a way that enables greater public engagement with the past, present and future of geography, and the Society, through enhanced interpretation of the building and its contents. CARICUK will help to directly shape this work, with long lasting legacies.”
Find out more about CARICUK and follow the project on Twitter at @caricuk.