London is a living history in yr hand
Public programming
MA Curating and Collections in collaboration with Peer Gallery and Onyeka Igwe.
Peer Gallery
London, Hoxton
September 2024
London is a living history in yr hand accompanied the exhibition history is a living weapon in yr hand
by artist Onyeka Igwe at Peer Gallery, in the form of a physical map.
history is a living weapon in yr hand takes as its starting point the year of 1947, when London was a hub of radical anti-colonial activity. Central to the exhibition, Onyeka Igwe’s film, A Radical Duet, imagines what happened in the 1940s when two women of different generations who were fighting for independence, came together in London to write a revolutionary play.
Responding to the film, this map pinpoints significant figures and locations in Hackney and further afield, past and present: locations that may be familiar to many—places passed every day or often visited—and others perhaps less well known. These places connect us to black British histories that may otherwise go unnoticed, and contain traces of those that have been forgotten or silenced. Through remapping, we recognise their stories and contributions, and the part they play in creating the East London that we know today.
A digitised, expanded version of this map is available. It includes a reading list and a bibliography:
https://london-is-a-living-history-in-yr-hand.webflow.io/map
Compiled and printed by students on the MA Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Art:
Nis Azmee Murat, Yining Bai, Stephanie Colclough, Wanjing Lin, Heyue Lu, Zihan Zhou
Illustrated by:
Nis Azmee Murat, Stephanie Colclough
Design layout by:
Nis Azmee Murat
history is a living weapon in yr hand takes as its starting point the year of 1947, when London was a hub of radical anti-colonial activity. Central to the exhibition, Onyeka Igwe’s film, A Radical Duet, imagines what happened in the 1940s when two women of different generations who were fighting for independence, came together in London to write a revolutionary play.
Responding to the film, this map pinpoints significant figures and locations in Hackney and further afield, past and present: locations that may be familiar to many—places passed every day or often visited—and others perhaps less well known. These places connect us to black British histories that may otherwise go unnoticed, and contain traces of those that have been forgotten or silenced. Through remapping, we recognise their stories and contributions, and the part they play in creating the East London that we know today.
A digitised, expanded version of this map is available. It includes a reading list and a bibliography:
https://london-is-a-living-history-in-yr-hand.webflow.io/map
Compiled and printed by students on the MA Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Art:
Nis Azmee Murat, Yining Bai, Stephanie Colclough, Wanjing Lin, Heyue Lu, Zihan Zhou
Illustrated by:
Nis Azmee Murat, Stephanie Colclough
Design layout by:
Nis Azmee Murat
