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34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory

University of East London

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Title and brief description

The Browning of Britannia

Type

M - Exhibition

Venue(s)

British Film Institute, Southbank Gallery, London

Year of first exhibition

2008

URL

http://faisalabduallah.com/works/the-browning-of-britannia/

Number of additional authors

Additional information

Abdu'Allah worked for three years to make The Browning Of Britannia

Commissioned by the British Film Institute for its Southbank Gallery (14 February-18 May 2008), this large-scale, eight-screen video installation requires complex synchronisation. Supported with National Lottery funds (£30,000), the artist worked in collaboration with Big Hug Ltd., to ensure that the synchronisation is technically sophisticated with high production values.This research investigates Ago Piero Ajano – an alleged modern-day pretender to the throne of England. Once a 1980s playboy, now penniless and living in a council flat, Ajano claims to be a direct descendant of the abdicated King Edward VIII. Ajano's life story is used to investigate Abdu'Allah’s concerns with issues of infidelity within the British Monarchy and to assess what role the Government played in discrediting the illegitimate children from royal loins. Through audio-visual interviews, the work extends Abdu’Allah’s research into how body language, speech patterns and ethnicity frame questions of ‘truth’ and ‘fiction’; specifically how racial identity complicates Ajano’s disputed claims. Presenting interviews between Ajano, two friends from his heyday and his ‘power of attorney’, the work defies logic and challenges conventional notions of knowledge and fidelity.

The work alongside an interview with the artist features in The BFI Gallery Book (2011, ISBN 978 1 870282 82 6, pp.57-75). The exhibition was accompanied by educational outreach sessions and artist’s talks from 14 February-18 May 2008. The project was featured and reviewed in the following publications, broadcast and online media:

Art Monthly, April 2008:

http://www.colinemilliard.co.uk/selectedwriting/selectedw_faisal.htm,

Art Vehicle, 2008: http://www.artvehicle.com/events/250),

The Guardian, 9 February, 2008:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/feb/09/exhibition.art3).

Interview on BBC Radio 4's Midweek, 13 February 2008:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/midweek_20080213.shtml),

The New Statesman, March 2008:

http://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2008/03/artists-tackle-existential

Itzcaribbean.com, the leading website of the Caribbean community in UK: March 2008

Interdisciplinary

Cross-referral requested