Kwasi Kwarteng Artsnight

London in the 21st century is a metropolitan, multicultural city.

But as a writer, I'm fascinated by the older London,

the city that was at the heart of a grand imperial project.

There are traces everywhere,

even if many of us have forgotten

what any of these names and events mean.

For my addition of Artsnight, I want to look at how the British Empire

transformed not only politics and economics in Britain,

but left its lasting imprint

on our literature, our art and our architecture.

By looking at the British Empire through the prism of culture,

one can actually feel what it was like

to be part of the largest empire the world has ever known.

Tate Britain is a building with an imperial past.

The institution was created by Henry Tate, the sugar merchant,

who became incredibly wealthy through overseas trade.

Now, Tate Britain wants to show

the close relationship between art and Empire...

..drawing on works and artists from around the world

and across five centuries.

The idea of this exhibition

has been something Tate curators have had in mind for many years.

I think discussions about doing an exhibition on art and Empire...

-..10 years we've been discussing this?

-A long time.

But there hasn't been the confidence to go ahead with it.

It's a problematic, controversial subject.

Also, would you be in danger of inadvertently celebrating

or endorsing Empire, making an apology for it.

But eventually, we ran out of excuses NOT to do it.

Let's say there's a young person coming to your exhibition.

What would you like him or her to take away from the exhibition?

I'd like the art to lead people to the history

and the context in which these works were produced.

We made a deliberate decision to actually focus on images of people.

The subtitle is "Facing Britain's Imperial Past".

And the idea of facing is not just confronting,

but actually looking at people.

I think the idea of focusing on people gives a very human dimension to this exhibition.

It allows people of all races, cultures, backgrounds,

to look at each other over time and history,

with the idea of understanding where we've got to in the present day.

Each room focuses on a different aspect

of how the Empire has influenced artists.

Some celebrating it, some condemning the imperial project.

One of the things that really interests me

is how the Empire was represented to people back home in Britain.

And one of the ways was to look at a hero.

This is one of the most important paintings,

and it shows General Gordon just moments before his death.

It was a very grisly end. His head was cut off and put on a spike.

But in the moments before the death, he seems serene, almost contemptuous.

This image was reproduced on an industrial scale

and made Gordon into one of the heroes, a real martyr of Empire.

The Guyanese-born artist Hew Locke

has a very different take on these imperial heroes.

He radically reinterprets statues of figures like Edward Colston,

a major benefactor of the city of Bristol,

who made much of his fortune through slavery.

It's a statue of a reasonable man.

He's a thinker, he's coming from the Age of Enlightenment.

It's one of the most attractive statues in Bristol.

And all that contradicts who the guy was.

I mean, the man was hard-core slave dealer.

And what I've done is I've covered him in

cowrie shells which were used as trading currency for buying slaves.

And I've covered him in cheap jewellery,

alluding to the kind of cheap trinkets

that would have been used in his trade.

There are debates - shall we take the statue down?

Get rid of it completely?

For me, I don't like that, I want this thing to stay there

as some horrible reminder of Bristol's past.

Because it's interesting. If the thing is gone,

there's nothing to have a conversation about.

The final room of the exhibition looks at those modern artists

who engage with the continuing legacy of Empire.

This striking image is created

by the Liverpool-based Singh Twins,

who use traditional Indian painting techniques

to reflect 21st-century subjects.

This is an extraordinary picture.

Would you like to say a bit more about it?

It's so busy and there's so much energy and vitality in it.

Well, the painting is inspired by two Victorian works

which represent the Indian mutiny.

So it really looks at that issue of what the mutiny...

how it was projected in the Victorian era,

but reassessing that in the light of how the Indians see

that historical event more as a kind of rebellion for freedom

from British domination in India at that time.

There's a positive aspect to the whole legacy of Empire too,

the fact that migration brought with it the influence

of Indian culture generally on British life and culture.

That's represented around the border with various figures

like Monty Panesar and Victoria Beckham

who's depicted wearing a sari, so that's obviously representing

the influence of Indian fashion on British fashion.

So Indians in the world of commerce and sport and media,

music industry, fashion, they've all put their stamp on British identity.

Do you think enough people in Britain

are engaged with Britain's imperial past?

I think they're engaged whether they realise it or not.

The moment they go to the local takeaway and eat Indian curry,

-that's the legacy of Empire.

-That's right.

But I think formally, no, I don't think something, for example,

that's necessarily taught at the school level.

And I think it's an important aspect that should be taught in schools

because that period of imperial history,

particularly the link between India and Britain,

is something that connects us all

and I think it helps cultures to understand one another

if you understand what those shared roots and heritages are.

The history of the British Empire is much too often left to textbooks.

But by looking at Empire through the eyes of artists,

this exhibition brings to life forgotten events

in a powerful and haunting manner.

The Tate Gallery was founded at the height of Britain's imperial power.

But this stretch of the River Thames

marks another, darker legacy of Empire.

On this site, until the mid-19th century,

stood the infamous Millbank prison

from which thousands of convicts were sent to Australia.

I went to meet Peter Carey, the novelist, whose work reveals

so many insights into the experience of colonial Australia.

The very British Cheltenham Literary Festival, where this year

Peter Carey is being presented with a lifetime achievement award.

Now in his 70s, Carey is one of only three authors

to have won the Booker Prize twice.

Peter and I both have a fascination with the history of colonialism.

I began by asking him about how his work reflects

the particularly Australian experience of the British Empire.

I would think that we are really aware that we are settlers.

We are really deeply aware that it's not really our land.

-Sure.

-Even some of the more conservative amongst us

really would grant that the indigenous people

actually do know how to live in that land

and that, really, it's a problem, it's a threatening place to us.

You've talked about Australia being almost schizophrenic in some ways,

with respect to their relationship

to the "mother country" as it used to be called.

Everybody feels second-rate and feels, you know,

the issue that the whole of society

would be marked by the convict stain.

-Yeah.

-So, my ancestors are there suffering from that.

At the same time, being totally Anglophile

and totally in love with the Empire,

so my grandfather who never came to this country

-called England home.

-Home.

Carey's work involves rethinking the very language used

to express that colonial experience.

The story of the Kelly gang has been featured in countless films.

And Ned Kelly is notorious as an outlaw all over the world.

In his version, Carey constructs

an entirely new voice for this infamous figure.

"I lost my own father at 12 years of age

"and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences.

"My dear daughter, you are presently too young

"to understand a word I write.

"But this history is for you and will contain no single lie,

"may I burn in hell if I speak false.

"God willing, I shall live to see you read these words

"to witness your astonishment and see your dark eyes widen

"and your jaw drop when you finally comprehend the injustice

"we poor Irish suffered in at this present age."

I was very struck by the fact that, you know, this whole phenomenon

of Ned Kelly, I mean, clearly he was a very violent person.

-Uh-huh.

-Well, he's seen...

-Uh-huh.

I know it's commonly said he's clearly a violent person.

-That's right.

-But the accounts of his life

and the so-called violence are mostly to do with fist fights,

which I would say, having grown up in a country town,

in Australia, really not...

That's not violence at any particular level at all.

So you're seeing him as an anti-authoritarian, an anti...

I mean, what's driving him, in your mind?

Oh, the rage at the unfairness of life.

The people who represent the Empire are the police and the judiciary.

And when Ned Kelly hoodwinks the police

-and makes a fool of the police for about a year and a half...

-Yeah.

..he is showing the world we might be the convict seed, guys,

but we can be who we want to be.

The novel Jack Maggs sees Carey exploring

the relationship between the colonies and the motherland,

as he daringly rewrites Charles Dickens' Great Expectations,

but this time from the perspective of the convict Magwitch.

"As the flies began to tease his skin,

"the wretched man would begin to build London in his mind,

"he would build it brick by brick,

"as the horrid double-cat smote the air,

"eddying forth like a storm from hell itself.

"Underneath the scalding sun,

"which burned his flesh as soon as it was mangled,

"Jack Maggs would imagine the long, mellow light of English summer."

Was there a significance in the fact that you picked on Dickens?

Is that something which you thought about

as the arch-imperial enemy, if you like?

Because there was a time when Dickens was just thrust down people's throats in British schools.

I sort of escaped all that process.

I didn't have any personal animosity against Dickens.

But, you know, it was a typically sort of rash

and rather reckless thing to do on my behalf,

and I do remember, having written it,

coming in from Heathrow in a taxi, and going, "Oh, what have I done?"

-You know...

-You've taken on the whole British Empire.

In his novel Oscar And Lucinda,

Carey explores the complexities of the colonial psyche

through the story of two Australian settlers

and a misguided bet.

The novel's enduring image,

captured in the 1997 film,

is the transportation of a glass church through the outback

and up the Bellinger River.

I had this notion which is like a political cartoon almost,

it's a glass church floating up a river,

filled with Christian stories through a landscape of...

-So that's where the novel starts, with that image.

-So it's not like...

-You had a master plan of...

-I knew what the story was going to be

and I knew what it meant in terms of the society,

but along the way, one finds all sorts of things

that one didn't know one knew, or was even interested in.

"My great-grandfather drifted up the Bellinger River

"like a blind man up the central aisle of Notre Dame.

"He saw nothing.

"The country was thick with sacred stories, more ancient than the ones

"he carried in his sweat-slippery leather Bible.

"He did not even imagine their presence.

"In this landscape, every rock had a name,

"and most names had spirits, ghosts, meanings."

And talking about the Australian settler experience,

and we mentioned that clearly there were people we call aborigines,

I mean, literally original people,

who lived on the continent of Australia for 50,000 years.

-Yep.

-I mean, how likely is it that in the future you might try

and give them more of a voice in your creative work?

Well, I think you cannot be Australian

and you certainly can't be an Australian writer,

without, almost every day, thinking of this issue.

So then you have to think about what you can succeed in doing,

what you can know, what you can invent, and I've never forgotten

a conversation years ago with an aboriginal activist.

His name I think was Gary Foley, saying, "You guys,

"you've made up enough shit about us. We've got to deal with that now.

"So just do us a favour and don't make up any more for a bit."

-Just stop.

-I think it's a reasonable point.

On the other hand, with everything I've done,

I think the one basic fact of Australia

is the fact that the land was stolen,

that we lied, that we...

So every book acknowledges it.

The present book I'm writing at the moment

is trying to do something a little more.

And, um...we'll see how I go.

Thank you.

India, of course, was the jewel in the crown of the British Empire.

And Indian textiles were especially valued,

as Britain could export these throughout the world.

Comedian Shazia Mirza looks at how fabric tells the evolving story

between Britain and India in the colonial era.

I've come to the Victoria and Albert Museum for a new exhibition

celebrating the fabrics of India.

It's a riot of colour and beauty,

with hundreds of dazzling textiles spanning 2,000 years,

and every part of the Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan.

Not only is the whole exhibition a tribute

to centuries of sophisticated craftsmanship,

it also has a particular significance for me,

as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants.

I was brought up in Birmingham

where I always wanted to dress like my friends -

in low-cut tops, short sleeves and short skirts.

But my mother, being very conservative,

dressed us all very conservatively.

And all my clothes were made by some random Asian lady

who lived down the road using traditional Indian fabrics

brought over from India by my relatives.

So now, seeing all this, it's like going back in time.

While the fabrics might feel familiar,

these are priceless historical artefacts,

many dating from imperial times.

This map shawl from the 1870s,

with its impressive hand-embroidered detail,

was intended as a present from the ruler of Kashmir

to the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.

But it wasn't all about gift-giving.

This is part of a huge, decorated, cloth tent

used as a movable palace by Tipu Sultan,

the Islamic ruler of Mysore.

Tipu was killed by the British in a bloody battle in 1799,

and his possessions, including this tent, were taken as war booty.

After the British quashed Tipu,

it was acquired by a local colonial governor

called Lord Clive, who took it back home to his castle in Wales

and used it as a marquee for garden parties.

I knew I recognised it from somewhere.

The exhibition also reveals one surprising legacy of Empire -

how the British acquired a taste for chintz.

This Indian textile was first brought to Britain

by 17th-century traders and has been a hallmark

of English interior design and fashion ever since.

This early-18th-century creation of a petticoat and jacket

was created for export to the English market.

Hence the low-cut top.

But to me, it could just be a Laura Ashley creation.

I've got carpets that look like that.

It's so quintessentially English.

I would never associate this fabric with India at all.

In the 1700s, chintz became so popular

that weavers in Britain feared they'd go out of business

and had it banned.

After the ban, wearing chintz like this became an act of rebellion.

Some women were even attacked in the street.

I've heard of people being attacked for wearing fur, but florals?

That's a first!

Soon, the British were collecting samples of Indian fabrics

to copy and manufacture more cheaply in their own mills.

It nearly destroyed the Indian cloth industry,

but local craftsmen fought back

and contemporary fashions on display reveal

it's still in really good health today.

Two of the most spectacular items on show in the exhibition

are the creations of Manish Arora,

one of India's leading fashion designers.

His colourful clothes are much loved in the West

and worn by celebrities like Katy Perry.

I met up with Manish to find out

how he incorporates traditional techniques into his designs.

Well, when I started showing internationally,

I realised I had to take my culture with me.

And what could I do? I could take my craftsmanship with me

because today I think Indians do the best embroideries in the world,

even Chinese can't do that.

Besides that, for me,

I was brought up since I was a child

seeing women wearing red, blue, green, orange, yellow,

all in one garment, and with all the embellishments

and the shine and still look convincing.

And that has come with me throughout my life.

So it's just natural for me to adapt that in my work.

Gold and pink are my religion, and I love, I love embellishments.

-The glitz and glamour.

-The shinier, the better.

Oh, that's good.

If you walk into my studio, you will see at any given point of time

about 150, 200 people working...

Sometimes I'm amazed that they can just stare at one fabric for months

and go on and on and keep sewing sequins on it in such fine detail.

I think they are the real artists.

A work of art is the only way to describe this dress.

With its 1,500 individual butterflies

made from vinyl and plastic,

each one hand embroidered.

That dress was made for my first show in Paris.

We had about 20 or 25 people involved for four months

going through various techniques of appliqueing

and then sending it for hand embroidery

and then attaching the tentacles and putting the pearls.

Then making all the 1,500 pieces and then attaching them.

-Yeah, it's a lot of work.

-It's a lot of work.

The craftsmanship takes such a long time.

Do people in the West just expect a really quick turnaround?

Yes, they do, in the West.

And what we're doing now is just churning things,

we're not creating, I don't think anyone has the time to spend

or to be one of a kind, or come up with ideas

which are straight from the heart because no-one has time.

Yes, in India we appreciate it takes a very long time.

And I don't want to miss that.

I want to continue doing that and I will.

And now we are going to take a look at an artist

who has taken a unique journey.

From the Caribbean, to London

and back to his ancestral roots in Africa.

Fokowan was born George Kelly,

but adopted his Yoruba name after a life-changing trip to Nigeria.

This set him on the path to creating

a truly distinctive form of sculpture.

This is my home.

And this is where I make my work.

In the religion of Nigeria, they talk about the head

being the seat of consciousness.

And so I deal with heads,

I deal with the seat of consciousness.

I was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1943,

which was then part of the British Empire.

Education was based on the British model,

or controlled by the colonial masters.

And most of it came from the Royal Crown Reader series.

And that really was just a piece of propaganda for the British Empire.

When you saw black people, they were savages in Africa

with white missionaries in pots and they'd be dancing around.

We were not really taught anything, especially in history,

about local Jamaica.

And so our whole existence was about ignoring,

pretending we didn't notice, anything that was black.

You know, I'm running around in the sunshine,

I run around barefooted, no problem.

I come to England to find that we were living in a house

with about 50 people.

50 people living in this four-storey building in Brixton.

Every house had chimneys, and the only time I'd ever seen

chimneys in Jamaica was at the cement factory.

And by the end of September, October,

smoke started coming out of these chimneys.

And then we ended up with fog and smog, it was just unbelievable.

They put me in a class with another black guy,

but he was born here and he couldn't understand what I was saying

when I spoke to him, and I didn't understand a word.

-He said...

-HE MUMBLES

A real cockney, he was!

But there were some other outsiders

who nobody could understand either.

They all came from Glasgow.

So they would talk and nobody in the class would understand them,

so they took me in and they took care of me.

# Oh, the harder they come

# The harder they'll fall... #

I became a musician for a while.

So a point came when Jimmy Cliff needed a sound engineer

to do a tour in Nigeria.

And so I was asked to do the job, this was in 1974.

I left the airport and headed towards the hotel

and I saw all these people I knew.

The first time I'd seen so many black faces since I left Jamaica.

It's like a river, or rivers of black faces,

and it was like, "George, you're home!"

Going to that country totally transformed my perception of life,

of spirit. I mean, the place was so electrifying,

you could actually cut the electricity

that was whizzing around in the air.

And I brought back some of that with me.

But the spirit kind of said to me,

music isn't the way for you to express this thing.

So I went out and got clay and started modelling.

And it was a way of releasing all that pent-up stuff.

The first exhibition that I actually took part in,

that was the beginning, and it was really exciting.

Young artists came from university for the first time who were

trained here, who were born here.

Then you had people like myself who didn't go to university,

are self-taught, had brought something with us

from the Caribbean that we needed to say, and we had to say.

We were all invited to take part in an exhibition.

We all entered a piece, and mine was actually rejected.

I went to collect the piece and asked the curator why.

The curator then told me, to my face,

that my piece was too tribal.

Something in the art that I produce had some powerful element

that showed the difference between those who bring to this culture

and those who were born into this culture.

The idea of the purpose

and reason for doing art was really for my community.

It wasn't about being some kind of solemn artist who creates art

to sell and make a lot of money.

It wasn't a lot of money, as long as I am warm and I'm fed

and I have a glass of wine, I'm fine.

But there are one-off pieces that can't be reproduced.

Therefore they have to stay within the community.

I really would like to donate them to an institution

and then I'd be happy, yes.

Thank you for watching.

I leave you with Laura Mvula performing a song by Fela Kuti

at the British Library as part of their celebration

of West African culture.

-# Everyone, dey dance

-Him go push

-# Everyone, dey hear

-Him go shout

-# Everyone, dey hear

-Him go see

-# Everyone, dey think

-Him go drink

-# Everyone, dey dance

-Him go push

-# Everyone, dey talk

-Him go shout

-# Everyone, dey hear

-Him go sleep

-# Everyone, dey think

-Him go drink

-# Everyone, dey dance

-Him go push

-# Everyone, dey talk

-Him go shout

-# Everyone, dey hear

-Him go sleep

-# Everyone, dey think

-Him go drink

-# Everyone, dey dance

-Him go push

-# Everyone, dey hear

-Him go shout

-# Everyone, dey hear

-Him go sleep

-# Everyone, dey think

-Him go drink

# He say na-na-na

# Him don show himself

# Opposite people Them go show themselves... #