DANCING IN TIME: THE TIES THAT BIND US BY LR VANDY

In Summer 2023, the International Slavery Museum launched a collaboration with artist LR Vandy, which has seen audiences engaging with the museum from outside of its traditional walls.

working with the Ropery, a 19C building which still makes rope in the traditional way.

“Working with the team of Master Ropemakers has given me a new material to explore and express current themes in my practice. I am not interested in making something inert. I want movement, and movement often implies tensions, and what better material than the rope. What people might not appreciate is how much symbolism the rope holds.

Through this sculpture I also want to evoke the feeling of dance – movement. How people throughout times have used dance to break free from oppressive systems.”

This installation, feeds into the overall transformation of the new International Slavery Museum, exploring storytelling, interpretation, and the wider historic waterfront.

This unique intervention and the placement of the sculpture on the Canning Dock quayside, echoes Vandy’s recent studio relocation to Chatham Historic Dock Yard,

The rope holds both symbolic and historic importance as it was used in ancient construction, the building of Colonisation and Empire through shipping, as well as its more sinister association with slavery and captivity. Vandy uses the materiality of the rope to create abstract female figures out of twists and turns, creating a new sculpture for the International Slavery Museum.

The sculpture is hand made by sewing sections of rope and binding the ends with twine. The end form of the rope speaks to the origins of dance in hunting rituals, carnival masquerades and spirit dancers of the African diaspora, reflecting the title of ‘Dancing in Time.’ A source of inspiration for Vandy has been Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, an exploration of dance as a manifestation of the timeless human need for communal joy in Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund Heritage Horizon Awards has supported this installation, and in helping the museum to re-imagine ambitions for the newly transformed museum.

The installation is up until 17 September. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ whatson/international-slavery-museum/ exhibition/dancing-time-ties-bind-us