Today, Artangel launches Enemies and Rascals by Terence Gower, presented inside the Original Cell in the Maughan Library, King's College London.
Over the last three years the artist has traced the scattered remains of a military campaign that led to the Invasion of Quebec during the American War of Independence. Behind the iron door of the Original Cell, Gower draws together archival material into a multi-voice audio piece that presents competing perspectives on the eighteenth century campaign, while considering the limitations of the archive itself.
The Maughan Library, London's first purpose-built fireproof building, housed the UK's public records, including documents relating to the governance of Britain's colonies. Colloquially known as the ‘strongbox of empire’, it provides a resonant setting for an artwork that draws directly on records once stored within its walls.
Tickets for Enemies and Rascals also include entry to The Quebec Act, an exhibition of rare books and historical documents from the period, presented in the Library's Weston Room. The Quebec Act is curated by Terence Gower with Katie Sambrook and John Wilby of the Foyle Special Collections Library.
Terence Gower
Enemies and Rascals
Book your free ticket to experience the artwork and the adjoining exhibition of archival materials now.
Terence Gower in the Financial Times
In advance of the launch of Enemies and Rascals, Terence Gower discussed his new audio artwork with Caroline Roux in the Financial Times.
As the article states, "Gower is not a politician or statesman but an artist whose work is deeply informed by historical research [...] his exhibitions have sought to show the slippery nature of fact, the dents left in it by revision, politics and time."
Read more and discover why the artist revisits an eighteenth century military campaign by the Thirteen Colonies, and how "the ruse of ‘imminent threat’" as the pretext for war predated the founding of the United States.
