2012 - A World Away, Dyrham Park Gloucestershire

Dyrham, near Bath, SN14 8ER

0117 937 2501

dyrhampark@nationaltrust.org.uk

For opening times please visit: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dyrham-park/

The global connections of the William Blathwayt, who built Dyrham Park in the 17th century, are being explored through the work of contemporary artists.

William Blathwayt, a politician and administrator who specialised in colonial affairs in America and the Caribbean, was the Monarch’s link to a global economic network. Dyrham is still filled with reminders of the global reach of his career such as the cedar wood from Virginia used to create the magnificent staircase.

Several of the works feature maps linking to Blathwayt’s own interests in maps which he used to understand the distant colonies he administered. His collection bound into Blathwayt Atlas is now at Brown University, Rhode Island USA.

Two of the larger pieces on display are Sonia Boyce’s ‘Lay back, keep quiet and think of what made Britain so great’ in which four panels are decorated using designs appropriated from a Victorian wallpaper design, showing Boyce’s ambivalence to what is Britishness.

Yinka Shonibare’s ‘Line Painting’ is a three metre wide circle of many different Dutch wax fabric print canvasses. Originating in Indonesia, popular in West Africa, the fabric processes were industrialised by the Dutch but many were made in Manchester by Asian workers, investing the work with a historical cultural and  commercial context.

Artists include Art and Language (Michael Baldwin (b.1945) Mel Ramsden (b.1944)), Sonia Boyce, Shirley Chubb, Matthew Dalziel, Louise Scullion, Leo Fitzmaurice, Mona Hatoum, Steve Johnson, Emma Kay, Paul Etienne Lincoln, Mariele Neudecker, Cornelia Parker, Johannes Phokela, Marc Quinn, Helen Sear, Yinka Shonibare, Lucy Skaer, Mark Wallinger, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

 

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The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

With more than 8,000 works by over 2,000 artists, it can be seen in exhibitions and public displays across the country and beyond. This website offers unprecedented access to the Collection, and information about each work can be found on this site.