Government Art Collection Podcasts

The fourth episode follows the journey of the Government Art Collection artworks from the moment of the attack in 2011 to their return to London for conservation and then back again to Tehran where they were re-installed in February 2019. It features discussions with Alejandra Echenique de Hopton (FCO); Rob Macaire, Her Majesty's Ambassador to Iran; and Andrew Parrat, Head of Collection Care (GAC).

The third episode recounts the dramatic attack on the British Embassy in Tehran in 2011, when a number of works of art from the Government Collection were damaged. It features an interview with Sir Dominick Chilcott, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Ankara and former British Ambassador to Tehran in 2011.

This episode centres on the 19th century, covering the appointment of the first permanent British Ambassador to Tehran, Sir Gore Ouseley; the history of the British Embassy building in Tehran; the portraits of Fath Ali Shah, 2nd Qajar ruler (1772- 1834); and the European tour of Naser al Din Shah (1831-1896). It features a discussion with Dr Moya Carey, Curator of Islamic Collections at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, and Mark Bertram CBE RIBA, author of ‘Room for Diplomacy, Britain’s Diplomatic Buildings Overseas 1800-2000’.

This episode focuses on the early modern period exploring the history of the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722); rituals and banquets at the court of Shah Abbas I (1571-1629); the architecture of Isfahan and English travellers to Isfahan. It features a discussion with Dr Sussan Babaie, Andrew W. Mellon Reader in the Arts of Iran and Islam, Courtauld Institute of Art, and Dr Jan Loop, Professor in Early Modern History at the University of Kent.

In an audio interview with Liliane Lijn, which took place in her north London studio in 2013, the leading international artist gives us an insight into her unique career. Lijn hung out with Surrealists and Beat poets in Paris in the 1960s where she applied Letraset to cylinders and cones and attached them to revolving turntables to create kinetic texts called Poem Machines. From these early beginnings Lijn has gone on to pursue the exploration of light and energy with scientific dedication. In the 1980s she worked on a number of gigantic, plumed and beaded kinetic sculptures that referenced the feminine. In the last couple of decades she has produced a new series of rotating cones known as koans, stemming from her interest in Zen Buddhism where a koan is a puzzle, or type of riddle used for meditation. Lijn’s whirring mainly off-white koans have a snaking neon line running through them in subtle contrast to the object’s opaque surface that mark elliptical planes on, in and through the sculpture itself. Lijn delights in juggling with combinations of industrial materials – including liquid, light, fire, acid – and has also worked with interstellar dust following a three-month residency at NASA’s Space Science Laboratory in the US in 2005. Covering sculpture, drawing and installation, Lijn’s kaleidoscopic practice brings into focus the diverse strands of science, art, technology, female mythology and Buddhist philosophy.

In Cornelia Parker's Rorschach (Endless Column III) 14 flattened silver-plated domestic objects, are suspended on wires in a horizontal line, hovering a few inches above the floor. All the objects -- including a candelabra, a fruit basket and a ladle -- have been squashed by a 250 ton industrial press. Standing in front of her stunning sculptural installation, purchased by the GAC in 2009, Cornelia Parker gives a revealing interview about what motivated her to make the work. She explains why she chose the particular silver-plated pieces, where she collected them from and what made her pulverise them with an industrial press. Emphasising that these are silver-plated objects not silver, Parker explains that they are the kind of pieces that people tend to give to commemorate occasions such as weddings, anniversaries and retirement -- this is silver that we all have in our lives. Cornelia Parker was born in Cheshire. She trained at Gloucester College of Art and Design, Wolverhampton Polytechnic and completed her Master of Fine Art degree at the University of Reading. In 1995, she collaborated with performer Tilda Swinton in The Maybe, an installation for the Serpentine Gallery. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997 and a major exhibition of her work was held at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1998. In 2001 she was commissioned to produce a sculpture for the new British Galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Two major solo shows of her work were held in 2008 at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and at the Whitechapel Gallery, London

Karen Pierce, former UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, talks about the works of art on display in her official residence in New York during the time she was working there. Pierce was filmed in London, in front of Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, a work in the Government Art Collection that seems appropriate in the context of the United Nations, given its issues of globalisation and cultural identity. Pierce explains how art can help to lend a sense of permanence to the British presence in New York and plays a vital diplomatic role through emphasising connections between the US and the UK.

An interview with Michael Arthur, British Ambassador to Germany. In this podcast Michael Arthur, UK Ambassador to Germany 2007--2010, is interviewed by Penny Johnson, the Director of the Government Art Collection in Berlin. Filmed in two parts, the first part of the interview takes place in the British Embassy near the Brandenburg Gate on Wilhelmstrasse and concludes in the Ambassador's Residence. The discussion focuses on some of the works of art currently on display in both buildings. The Embassy itself is a very striking, colourful, modern building and was designed in 2000 by Michael Wilford, one of Britain's leading architects.

In this interview for the Government Art Collections podcast series, artist Frank Bowling RA discusses the influences on his painting in the Collection, including the landscape of Guyana and 1960s Abstract Expressionism. For more go to: http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk

When starting work on Print for a Politician in 2005, Grayson Perry had "...a fantasy of the print hanging on the wall of a politicians office". In November 2009 this became reality when he saw his work displayed in the office of the Arts Minister, Margaret Hodge in our Department, DCMS. For this podcast he dressed as Claire, his famous alter ego, in a splendid appliquéd coat and striking shoes, Grayson answered questions about the context for his print, speaking engagingly about the ideas behind the work, most notably that This print is about a contemplative call for a balanced view of the world. For more go to http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk

The UK Government Art Collection was invited by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 2006 to commission art for the British Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen. Here, the commissioned artist Jenny West, discusses her sculpture featuring over 1000 suspended plumb bobs. For more go to: http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk

The UK Government Art Collection was invited by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 2007 to commission art for the British Embassy in Doha, Qatar. Here, the commissioned artist Jonathan Parsons, discusses his project which evolved from his fascination with maps of the region. For more go to: http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk

In this audio interview, which took place on 21 October 2009 in Natalie Dower’s London studio, the artist discusses how her work has developed over a long career.