Lost Threads, Lubaina Himid (2021, 2023) (EMPIRE LINES x Holburne Museum, British Textile Biennale)

Historian Gérard Besson uncovers the colonial foundations of Caribbean cosmopolitanism, through the Magnificent Seven (Port of Spain), in Trinidad. Seven magnificent buildings, each unique in design and craftsmanship, overlook Trinidad’s annual Caribbean Carnival along the Queen’s Park Savannah. Amongst them, a Moorish-inspired Corsican manor, a Scottish castle, a New England country house, an Archbishop’s Romanesque palace, and a French colonial complex stand side-by-side. Designed by European architects in the final days of the Trinidad Raj, and built with local materials and labour, the Magnificent Seven were yet the shared spoils of the island’s new cocoa economy. Their extravagance visually reflects Trinidad as the most cosmopolitan – though undervoiced – experiment in British colonialism. PRESENTER: Gérard Besson, Trinidad-based historian, fiction writer, and author of the ‘Caribbean History Archives’. He is the Chairman and Publisher of Paria Publishing Company Limited, which has produced over 160 titles on the history and culture of Trinidad and Tobago. He holds a Lifetime Achiever Heritage Preservation Award from the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago, and an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies. ART: The Magnificent Seven (Port of Spain), Trinidad (c. 1902-1910). IMAGE: ‘Killarney (Stollmeyer’s Castle)’. SOUNDS: Nick Barrett. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

8 Huhti 202117min

Dr. Glaire Anderson traces artistic and intellectual interpretations of sovereignty within Islam, through two 10th century bronzes bearing the inscription, al-mulk. Bronzes bearing the Arabic word for sovereignty, al-mulk, were popular luxuries traded across the medieval Islamic territories. But these two objects - a large basin, and a small bowl – were both discovered far from home at opposite ends of Eurasia, in Inner Mongolia, and southern Spain. Remote yet related, they reveal how cultural hegemony wrestled with adaptation, religion with secularism, and tradition with modernity, exposing a period of transhemispheric modernisation. PRESENTER: Dr. Glaire Anderson, senior lecturer in Islamic Art and founder of the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture and Collections at the University of Edinburgh. ART: Two Islamic Bronzes with Al-Mulk Inscription (c. 10th Century). IMAGE: ‘Metalware Bowl (probably High-Tin Bronze) with Al-Mulk Epigraphy’. SOUNDS: Sherita. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

25 Maalis 202112min

Art critic Laura Gascoigne portrays the connections between British colonial and cultural opportunism, through George Chinnery’s 1840s Self-Portrait, of the Artist in Macau. George Chinnery (1774-1852) was no oil painting. Escaping piling debts and parental duties, he pursued lucrative portrait markets in India and on the China coast. The Bengali and Macanese landscapes tucked within his final self-portrait hint at his remarkably transnational tale. But beneath Chinnery’s mischievous surface lie the less picturesque realities - of opium, orientalism, and overt exploitation of local populations. As British colonialism offered opportunities to those couldn't make it at home, so too did it often depend on such adventurers and rejects for its very survival. PRESENTER: Laura Gascoigne, art critic and commentator, and member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). ART: Self-Portrait of the Artist in Macau, George Chinnery (c. 1844). IMAGE: ‘George Chinnery’. SOUNDS: Albert Glasser. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

11 Maalis 202115min

Dr. Angus Lockyer detonates bids to define imperial Japan’s historical and artistic identities, through Niiro Chunosuke’s 1930s replica of the Kudara Kannon. 6000 miles from home, in the British Museum, stands one of two replicas of a Japanese national treasure. But most visitors pass her by, in search of samurai armour, elegant pottery, and woodblock prints. Though carved in Japan, the original and replicas of the Kudara Kannon tell us much about the archipelago's relationship with the Asian continent and the wider world. Used over the centuries to cement power and identity, the Kudara Kannon shows us how even the proudest empires depend on ideas from elsewhere. PRESENTER: Dr. Angus Lockyer, Visiting Scholar in the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He formerly taught Japanese, East Asian, and global history at SOAS University of London (2004-2019), and was a Co-Investigator in the SOAS-British Museum research project, Late Hokusai: Thought, Technique, Society. ART: Replica of the Kudara Kannon, Niiro Chunosuke (1931-1932). IMAGE: ‘Replica of Bodhisattva Kudara Kwannon figure, made of painted wood’. SOUNDS: Pauline Oliveros, Miya Masaoka. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

25 Helmi 202113min

Ben Reiss exposes Britain’s colonial gaze, contrasting Edward Atkinson Hornel’s photography and painting, Ceylonese Tea Pickers. Edward Atkinson (E.A.) Hornel’s Ceylonese Tea Pickers boldly depicts Tamil women working in their ‘natural’ Sri Lankan landscape. But looking at the painting through the lens of Hornel’s original study photographs exposes the distance between the artist’s fantasies and reality. Stitching together different shots, subjects, and sitters, Ceylonese Tea Pickers reflects the colonial mindset of an artist working at the height of the British Empire, with networks across Australia, Glasgow, and numerous colonies. PRESENTER: Ben Reiss, Morton Photography Project Curator at the National Trust for Scotland, and co-curator of E. A. Hornel: From Camera to Canvas. ART: Ceylonese Tea Pickers, Edward Atkinson Hornel (c. 1907). IMAGE: ‘Ceylonese Tea Pickers’. SOUNDS: Trills. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Read Jelena’s review of E.A. Hornel: From Camera to Canvas, showing at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh until 14 March 2021: edinburghmuseums.org.uk/stories/review-ea-hornel-camera-canvas Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

11 Helmi 202114min

Dr. Céline Ventura Teixeira shines light on the fusion of Eastern motifs and European iconography, in a set of azulejos – or decorative tiles - produced for a church altar in 17th century imperial Portugal. Azulejos – or decorative tiles – were the crowning glory of Portugal’s church altars. Known as ‘ceramic carpets’, they borrowed motifs from Indo-Persian and Oriental textiles, which flooded Lisbon’s markets with the expansion of the Portuguese Empire. More than mere mimics, the Portuguese tile-makers reinterpreted these symbols in line with existing European religious traditions. From pagodas to the camellia Japonica, these tiles fuse Oriental ornaments and European iconography, revealing a global network of associations. PRESENTER: Dr. Céline Ventura Teixeira, associate professor of Modern Art History at Aix-Marseille Université. ART: Frontal of a Three-Section Altar, Carmelite Convent in the Coimbra Region (17th Century). IMAGE: ‘Frontal of a Three-Section Altar’. SOUNDS: TRG Banks. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

28 Tammi 202113min

Dr. Paulina Banas unravels the purported Persian roots of 17th century Polish identities, through the Czartoryski Polonaise Carpet. Imported from the Safavid Persian Empire, Polonaise carpets were highly prized across the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – so much so that they were often mistaken as Polish-made. But beyond symbols of wealth, these textiles served a particular purpose for the Polish upper-classes, who looked East to consolidate their domestic rule. Weaving together Persian patterns with a Polish coat of arms, the Czartoryski Carpet challenges theories of exotic consumption, exposing transimperial textiles and identities. PRESENTER: Dr. Paulina Banas, post-doctoral fellow and faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art. ART: The Czartoryski Polonaise Carpet (17th Century). IMAGE: ‘The Czartoryski Carpet, 17th Century’. SOUNDS: Metastaz. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

14 Tammi 202114min

Dr. Henry Dee uncovers the global footprint of radical black activism in 1920s South Africa, through the cartoons of James Christie Scott. James Christie Scott’s cartoons illuminate black experiences of 1920s colonial capitalism. Commissioned by South Africa’s first major black trade union, his works subvert contemporary ideas of race, and imagine transformative moments of emancipation. ‘Scotty’ is best known today for his towering Black Samson mural. But arguably, his miniatures - his striking cartoons for the widely circulated The Workers’ Herald – had an even bigger global impact. PRESENTER: Dr. Henry Dee, post-doctoral research fellow at the International Studies Group, University of the Free State. ART: Cartoons for The Workers’ Herald, James Christie Scott (1920s). IMAGE: ‘When He Awakes’ in The Workers’ Herald (1926). SOUNDS: Uhadi. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

24 Joulu 202015min