This week Tate Britain unveils Viva Voce, a new film installation by renowned British artist Keith Piper. It is the first artwork to be commissioned in response to Rex Whistler’s 1927 mural The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats and is projected onto two screens suspended in the centre of the room containing the mural. Piper’s work directly addresses Whistler’s artistic intentions and explores the social and political context of 1920s Britain, inviting us to consider how and why historic images are made and what we can learn from them today. It opens to the public on Tuesday 12 March 2024 and is free to visit.
Viva Voce is a Latin phrase meaning ‘by word of mouth’ and is the name given to an oral examination in which students are questioned about their work. An academic and lecturer as well as an artist, Piper commented ‘I was struck by how young Whistler was. As a teacher, I speak to young artists all the time, questioning them about their practice.’ The film imagines such a conversation between Whistler and a fictional academic, Professor Shepherd. She asks Whistler about his mural and challenges him on the racist imagery contained within it.
Over the course of the film, they discuss Whistler’s other work from the period as well as a pamphlet written by Whistler’s close friend Edith Olivier (1872–1948). The pamphlet describes the narrative for the mural, including parts of the painting which were never completed.
Viva Voce also considers the time and place in which Whistler was working. It includes archival footage of Black soldiers during the First World War, Black American performers in 1920s London, the ‘Races in Residence’ displays at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition, and the 1926 General Strike. Piper said ‘I want to give a sense of how and why the mural exists.’ Viva Voce invites us to carefully examine historical images, the motives of those who made them and the context in which they were produced.
Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain, said
‘Piper’s work takes a brilliantly simple and poetic idea – to stage an imagined conversation between a 1920s artist and a 2020s academic – and turns it into something truly expansive, touching on a host of overlapping histories and overlooked connections. By simultaneously rooting the mural in the past and confronting it in the present, Viva Voce will no doubt inspire many more conversations about the relationship between the two.’
Keith Piper: Viva Voce, 12th March 2024, Tate Britain
About the artist
Keith Piper (b.1960) rose to prominence in the 1980s as a founder member of the BLK Art Group. He has gone on to stage solo exhibitions at museums and galleries across the UK, USA and Europe. His output as an artist ranges from painting and photography to video and digital media. Piper also works as a curator, researcher and academic and is a Professor at Middlesex University, London.
Podcast: The Art of Change – Hear from artists Keith Piper and Larry Achiampong, art historian Nikki Frater, playwright Jacqueline Malcolm and activist Jen Reid. Listen at tate.org.uk/art-of-change from Tuesday 12th March 2024.
