PROFESSOR CAROL TULLOCH
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6 October 2004 – 16 January 2005
Black British Style
Victoria and Albert Museum London
Curated by Carol Tulloch and Shaun Cole
The exhibition focused on dress practices amongst black people in Britain from the late 1940s to 2004. It developed out of concerns about the relationships between dress, ethnicity, ’race’ and place outlined in ‘“Out of Many, One People”?: The Relativity of Dress, Race and Ethnicity to Jamaica, 1880-1907’ (Tulloch 1998). In ‘Black British Style’ garments, accessories, photography and film were used to discuss the black identities developed by men, women and children in post-war Britain.
The exhibition challenged stereotypes associated with black aesthetics and identities. It placed the dress choices made by individuals to define their sense of self in a historical context. I wanted visitors to gain a better understanding of how, and why, black people in Britain styled their bodies, whether as part of migration, religious, secular or political activities. Oral testimonies played an important role in portraying ‘the sincere self’ to the choice of garments chosen for display.
The exhibition stressed that there is a historical legacy that underpins the style performance associated with this cultural group. ‘Black British Style’ showed how black people in Britain confronted the tenets of difference to present a sense of ‘authenticity’ to their life experiences.
Black British Style’ was the first major exhibition devoted to these issues to be shown in a national museum. It’s cultural significance extended internationally as it was the inspiration for the exhibition ‘Black Style Now’ (2006), Museum of the City of New York.
The positive national and international media reactions to the exhibition reinforced the importance of recognising the presence and cultural impact of black people in Britain.
An outcome of the exhibition, the associated publication and conference was the successful application for an AHRC Diasporas, Migration and Identities Network grant. This has resulted in the Dress and the African Diaspora Network.
15 February – 2 March 2012
International Fashion Showcase
Botswana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone
The British Council London
Curated by Carol Tulloch
The exhibition focused on
21 May – 30 September 2002
Picture this
Archive and Museum of Black Heritage, London
Curated by Carol Tulloch
The exhibition focused on
28 October 2010 – 20 April 2011
Handmade Tales
Women and Domestic Crafts Exhibition
The Women’s Library, London
Curated by Carol Tulloch
Handmade Tales: Women and Domestic Crafts considered how domestic crafts can be a space to channel different life experiences. It focussed on the practices of the ‘amateur’ rather than the ‘professional designer-maker/artist’, for whom the making of things in their ‘quieter moments’ for others or themselves is part of the autobiography of both the maker and the receiver. In order to demonstrate the cultural influences that have contributed to the vast practice that is domestic crafts in Britain, the show included a range of cultures and age groups from different strata of society from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.
6 October – 30 December 2003
The March of the Women
Suffragettes and the State
The National Archives
The exhibition focused on
2 July – 2 August 2008
A Riot of Our Own
Chelsea Space London
Curated by Carol Tulloch
The exhibition 'A Riot Of Our Own' looks at the Rock Against Racism (RAR) Movement of 1976-1981, through the private archive of Graphicsi -Ruth Gregory and Syd Shelton. They were RAR (London) committee members and key graphic designers of its associated material such as, the paper Temporary Hoarding, posters and stickers, badges, and illustrations. Syd photographed performers and members of the audience at RAR carnivals, gigs and demonstrations, as well as contextual social and cultural images that informed the politics of the movement, across England and Ireland. The archive is a unique repository of this pivotal period in Britain when difference was championed as empowering, anti-establishment, challenging a post-modern act, that helped to define Britain's character.
Today there are many versions of what RAR was and its legacy. The design, ephemera and photographic material kept by Ruth and Syd, provides another aspect of that historical moment which has been overlooked. Through this tangent, A Riot of our Own revisits the energy of RAR, the collective engagement with, and the offensive of, anti-racism through creative collaborations that was channelled from the design studio -to carnivals-to gigs-to tours-to demonstrations-to regional offices-to the design studio.
A Riot of Our Own is a collaborative curatorial project between Syd, Ruth and curator Carol Tulloch. As 'self-archivists' Ruth and Syd want to convey an idiosyncratic interpretation of what RAR was. Carol lends objectivity and curatorial perspectives in order for the pair to explore this. Therefore, the exhibition sets the personal recollections, 'function and storage memory in relation to one another' to present the individuals and groups who were united against racism through the amalgamation of reggae and punk music, technology and dress styles to forge a riot of their own.
2015
Cabinet Stories
Curated by Carol Tulloch
This late 19th century photograph features in the display ‘The Flat Cloth Cap’. One of seven contributions that form the touring project Cabinet Stories, 2015, an original concept by Alison Moloney, in collaboration with Jess Tierney. Part of the Centre for Fashion Curation and LCF Social Responsibility initiative.
19 October – 18 December 2001
Tools of the Trade
Memories of Black British hairdressing
Archive and Museum of Black Heritage, London
Curated by Carol Tulloch
Text to come
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