Output details

Genealogical Object

A bronze art medal, subsequently editioned through the British Art Medal Society, in the collection of the British Museum, London, UK and University Museum of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.

A bronze art medal, editionned through the British Art Medal Society, in the collection of the British Museum, London, UK and University Museum of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.

Year of production: 2009

Editioned: 2011

URL: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=25&sid=7778a45f-ae88-4da4-a1b7-7498ebf38e53%40sessionmgr4&hid=28&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aft&AN=64138972

Brief Description

Genealogical Object explores whether the Humanist convention of the portrait medal as propaganda device intended to project stable Western identity, can be used as a marker of cultural convergence. Exhibited at the international congress FIDEM XXI, Tampere Art Museum, 2010 (Suominem 2010); subsequently editionned for purchase by the British Art Medal Society (2011); featured prominently in ‘The Medal’ (Spring 2011, Autumn 2011). The significance of the research has been recognised through acquisition by world leading cultural institutions: University of Bergen Museum, Norway; The British Museum, London.

Research Rationale

The medium of the medal is typified by a remarkable historicism. Genealogical Object makes an original contribution by investigating the observation that the art medal is an art-form designed to be passed and exchanged between people, but in this exchange its form and language has remained remarkable static. Carpenter’s work highlights the inherent potential of these small hand-held objects to act as sites of cultural transmission and reception through the kinetic / social exchange of the object.

Strategies Undertaken

The medal was developed from a drawing project centred on Yoruba artefacts with family connections, including carvings of the artists’ great-grandparents. Synthesising these influences, the sculpture quotes from Ethiopian Orthodox art to create a double-portrait of the British artist and his Eritrean wife in a format strongly associated with Humanism. The sculpture also quotes Ibo V-grove carving to create a visually kinetic surface, referencing the Nigerian colonial history of his own family.