The Past is Now: Birmingham and the British Empire

Strange exhibition at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery looking at stories of colonialism as they pertain to Birmingham.

The show was curated by six different people as the commentary said that “there can be no neutral voice” on the subject of colonialism. However I didn’t feel it hung together as a whole. The most disturbing section looked at how eugenics was applied to non-British people and included two beautiful heads by Marguerite Milward who made ideal busts men and women of different races.

There was a section on Kenyan independence which pointed out that the case for compensation for wrongful arrests is still going through the British courts. The show also looked at Joseph Chamberlain who was a great advocate of colonialism in the Government but had previously been a much revered mayor of Birmingham.

There was also a wall of pictures from the collection which reflected the themes of the show including work by Lubiana Himid and drawings by Epstein.

Closes on 12 March 2018

 

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