Statues, museums and empire: a list on decolonisation and Cultural Memory

Colonialism leaves legacies of destruction and oppressions that take deliberate efforts to reckon with. Here, anticolonial struggles for justice, liberation and accountability–past and ongoing–hold lessons for us. Rahul Rao’s The Psychic Lives of Statues teaches us new ways of hearing these calls to action.

“When we say fees must fall we mean we want the land back” –

Fees Must Fall protestors, 2015.

We're immensely honoured to be launching this ever-so-welcome and generous book in the shop on April 3rd. Tickets are HERE.

Taking the struggle over statues in our culture as a jumping-off point, Rahul’s work presents an unflinching examination of the material realities that bring these statues into existence. More than just focusing on the figures manifest in these statues, Rahul collates a gripping study of those who fought for and against the memorialisation of these figures, scrutinising the effect these larger-than-life spectres have on our lives, our fights for equality and cultural identity.

Reading Rahul’s book, I kept thinking back to Martin Carter’s poem, You Are Involved:

This I have learnt:

to-day a speck

to-morrow a hero

hero or monster

you are consumed!

Like a jig

shakes the loom.

Like a web

is spun the pattern

all are involved!

all are consumed

In celebration of Rahul’s phenomenal work, and forever in rage against all colonial and imperial powers, we have put together a list of further readings about memorialisation, historicisation, materiality and decolonisation.

Join us to welcome The Psychic Lives of Statues to the world on April 3rd!