British Studies Now issue 11

How can a nation be performed? That was the question approached in some exciting ways during the first of a new series of short seminars at London's Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in October.

From his current base in New York, Kobena Mercer, writer on visual culture, surveyed how national identity was being played out by the 'yBa' phenomenon. 'yBa', which stands for young British/Black artists was, he said, "the ultimate sales proposition for new British art". It cashed in on the 'Cool Britannia' promotion and also exploited the culturally diverse membership of the group of young artists, led by Damien Hirst, whose landmark exhibition was Freeze in 1988.

Much could be learnt about contemporary Britain by the way 'yBa' has been promoted and received around the world and how ethnic difference is stereotyped. Tim Putnam, Professor of Material Culture at the University of Middlesex and Vicky Richardson, Senior Reporter for the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects clashed in a discussion of the Millennium Dome project in London's Greenwich. Nettled by the incessant 'whingeing' by detractors of the project, Richardson co-wrote a book 'In Defense of the Dome',* which was published by the Adam Smith Institute after the think-tank, Demos, withdrew. For Putnam, Britishness is performed more around the Dome: the beliefs underlying the objectors' arguments add up to an implied positive statement about British society.

See the live camera shot of the Greenwich Millenium Dome on the site of the Daily Mirror newspaper. (Just scroll down the Homepage till you find 'Millennium Dome Watch')

Other speakers considered Irish heritage museum displays and the role of art in museums intercultural performance and performing in Japanese theme parks. The conference opened and closed with the launch of 'Being Ourselves for You: the global display of cultures' by Nick Stanley (ISBN 1- 8982-5316-1 Middlesex University Press: Material Culture series £15) which examines how anthropological display has recently become popular entertainment in ethnographic theme parks around the world.

*ISBN 1 873712 987 £12 cheques and orders to Urban research group c/o 64 Albert Street, London NW1 7NR
e-mail: vicky@easynet.co.uk

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