We, the Dead by Victoria Adukwei Bulley

950 views · Published 24 September 2018 · 1:52 · Indexed 23 September 2026

Channel: Victoria and Albert Museum · 2018 · Education

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Victoria Adukwei Bulley, VARI Artist in Residence, has created a series of five short films and poems that unearth the names, lives and experiences of individuals whose enslavement is ineffably tied to objects held in the museum’s collections. She explores how this history has (and has not) been remembered, and how its legacies continue to shape the world today.

The films respond to the work of Dr Hannah Young, who has sought to uncover the links between British slave-ownership and the development of the V&A. Absentee slave-owners used their wealth, rooted in the exploitation of enslaved people, to invest in collections that are now found throughout the Museum.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/museum-residency-programme

Written and Directed by Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Direction of Photography by Artist Marcia X

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