Upstairs, London is in chaos. A 40 year old relationship with European partners is to be destroyed, with many people who voted for this saying they didn’t really mean it, the Prime Minister has gone, the Leader of the Opposition is running out of Cabinet Members to appoint and the only pillars of strength are in Scotland and London where the political leaders appear to be connected with the electorate and proactive about planning for the future. Is this Utopia?
Walking gracefully down an elegant 18th century staircase in King’s College London, an underground door appears to allow entry to another world, a little like C.S.Lewis’ “Narnia”, giving entry to a rocky cavern with two doorways, one being a mirror reflecting backwards while the other draws the visitor forwards into the world of Utopia.
Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s book “Utopia”, the Inigo Rooms in the lower levels of the East Wing of Somerset House have been transformed with collaborations between artists, musicians, performers, architects, technologists and academics, linked to a year-long Utopian theme with Somerset House and its partners.
Utopia is an imagined community that seeks perfection. Questions are raised here about how to achieve that with works from the Le Gun Collective, author Philip Hoare, artist Caitlin Shepherd and others. Installations, films, performances, music and loans of artworks from the Courtauld Gallery allow audiences to explore what Utopia means in today’s confusing society.
“Paths to Utopia” is a collaboration between Somerset House, King’s College London and the Courtauld Institute with many links to other strengths of the College in healthcare and the heritage of Florence Nightingale including the College’s long term research study of twins and the working lives of nurses as they care for patients with TB in Western Cape South Africa. Traditional Navajo rugs link to modern interpretations by the artist Stella Benjamin, alongside Karin Thompson’s new rug that integrates new medical scientific images and to the Roger Fry Bequest at the Courtauld from the African dancing mask and other objects which he collected to his own abstract images of confronted peacocks,
A complete room has been taken over with Le Gun’s installation “Temple of Perpetual Myths” combining a number of traditional and contemporary ideas to show Utopia as a process rather than a destination, with some surreal figures such as a Scottish crocodile (in a kilt) with four flaying arms.
“Paths to Utopia” will be continually changing to challenge and stimulate visitors to consider new insights into Utopia
