Naši spomenici slavnom porazu: Socijalistički spomenici u Velikoj Britaniji

Britain is the one major European country never to have had a numerically significant Communist movement, with Marxism generally limited either to far-left enclaves in Wales and Scotland, Labour Party entryism or, most commonly, academia. However, the Labour movement at its more radical edges has produced numerous monuments, memorials and spaces, littered around urban and even rural Britain. Typically, they are monuments to defeat, given the lack of any hegemonic socialism in Britain. They are also unusually figurative for 20th century public sculpture, suggesting a perhaps unexpected traditionalism, not usually considered to be the case for the ‘west’, in the Cold War polarities often used to analyse monumental artworks. This paper will discuss these narratives of heroic failure as expressed in mosaics, murals, sculptures and plaques in South Wales, the north of England and London as attempts to answer the question of what socialist memorials are like in a country without even historical socialism.Velika Britanija jedna je od istaknutih europskih zemalja koja nikada nije imala brojčano značajniji komunistički pokret, dok je marksizam uglavnom bio ograničen na krajnje lijevo orijentirane enklave u Walesu i Škotskoj, infiltracije u Laburističku stranku ili najčešće na akademsku zajednicu. Međutim, radnički pokret u svojim radikalnijim oblicima proizveo je brojne spomenike, memorijalne komplekse i prostore razbacane po urbanim pa čak i ruralnim sredinama Velike Britanije. Najčešće su to spomenici porazu, uzme li se u obzir odsutnost bilo kakvoga hegemonijskog socijalizma u državi. Jednako tako, neobično su figurativni u odnosu na javne skulpture karakteristične za 20. stoljeće te upućuju na donekle neočekivani tradicionalizam kakav se obično ne povezuje sa Zapadom u okviru polariteta Hladnog rata, na kojima se često temelji analiza spomeničkog stvaralaštva. Ovaj rad razmatra naracije o herojskim neuspjesima izražene u obliku mozaika, murala, skulptura i spomen-ploča u južnom Walesu, na sjeveru Engleske te u Londonu, u nastojanju da odgovori na pitanje kako izgledaju socijalistički spomenici u zemlji u kojoj socijalizam u povijesnom smislu nikad nije zaživio

From mood to movement: English nationalism, the European Union and taking back control

This article considers whether the 2016 EU referendum can be perceived as an English nationalist movement. Specifically, attention is given to examining how memories of the former British Empire were nostalgically enveloped in anxieties regarding England’s location within the devolved UK state. The comments and work of Enoch Powell and George Orwell are used to help explore the link between nostalgia and anxiety in accounts of English nationalism. Despite their opposing political orientations, when considered together, it is argued that both men provide a unique cross-political perspective on Englishness, empire and nostalgia. By way of exploring these themes in relation to the EU referendum, Aughey’s assertion that English nationalism can be perceived as both a ‘mood’ and ‘movement’ is used to highlight how a sense of English anxiety regarding its lack of national sovereignty (mood), as well as a desire to reclaim this sovereignty by renegotiating trade relations with the ‘Anglo-sphere’ (movement), were conjoined in the popular referendum slogan, ‘take back control’. In conclusion, it is argued that the contextualization of the referendum can be predicated upon an orientation to empire that steers away from glorifying pro-imperial images of England/Britain, towards a more positive and progressive appropriation of the EU referendum as a statement of national change and belonging

The stories we tell: uncanny encounters in Mr Straw’s house

During my first visit to Mr Straw’s House, a National Trust Property in the North of England, I was intrigued by the discrepancies between the narrative framework provided by the National Trust – its exclusions, silences and invisibilities – and the far more complex stories the house seemed to tantalisingly hint at. As a scholar I am drawn to certain sites and affectively engage with them and yet I usually keep silent about my investment which informs not only my interest but also how I read these heritage sites. My aim here is not primarily to interrogate my own investment, but to ask how productive it is, what it enables me to see and to describe and where its limits are. This case study explores a particular tourist attraction from the perspective of storytelling and asks what narratives can be constructed around, and generated through, the spatial-emotional dimensions of this heritage site. I am interested in the hold sites have over people, why and how they provoke imaginative and empathic investment that generates a network of stories and triggers processes of unravelling which have the potential to transform silences and unmetabolised affect into empathy and emotional thought

Forgotten Plotlanders: Learning from the survival of lost informal housing in the UK.

Colin Ward’s discourses on the arcadian landscape of ‘plotlander’ housing are unique documentations of the anarchistic birth, life, and death of the last informal housing communities in the UK. Today the forgotten history of ‘plotlander’ housing documented by Ward can be re-read in the context of both the apparently never-ending ‘housing crisis’ in the UK, and the increasing awareness of the potential value of learning from comparable informal housing from the Global South. This papers observations of a previously unknown and forgotten plotlander site offers a chance to begin a new conversation regarding the positive potential of informal and alternative housing models in the UK and wider Westernised world

Subplots to a City: Ten Years of in Certain Places

Subplots to a City explores new approaches to art, culture and urban development. In Certain Places, led by curators Charles Quick and Elaine Speight, is a programme of interventions and events that has since its inception in 2003 examined how artists can contribute to the development of a city, in this case Preston in the North West of England. Over the years it has worked with regional, national and international artists - including Jeppe Hein, Becky Shaw, Blast Theory and John Newling - and developed temporary projects, hosted artists' residencies, and throughout organised public talks about art and place.As a case study Subplots to a City provides a useful resource for those interested in place-based art, while also contributing to the critical discourse surrounding such practices. Alongside images, project outlines and reflections from artists, audience members and collaborators, the book includes texts by Speight and Quick, and contributions by specialists from various fields, including Owen Hatherley, Lubaina Himid, Sophie Hope, Paul O'Neill, and Jonathan Vickery

New Digs, Old Digs : Vauxhall Cross, Whitehall, and the London of Craig’s Bond

Abstract: This article explores the representation of London in four James Bond films that star Daniel Craig. It focuses in particular upon the headquarters of MI6, which are variously located in a postmodern office building, underground bunkers, and Whitehall. These diverse locations are shown to represent shifting ideas around British national identity that are here also linked to developments in architectural practice and London's economy