Upstairs, downstairs for famous visitors and young migrants

OneWorld UK

By Daniel Nelson

Between Worlds: Voyagers to Britain 1700-1850 is an excellent idea for an exhibition and is good as far as it goes but it doesnt go far enough.

The companion exhibition, the portentously titled Different Worlds: Contemporary Responses to Migration, in which students from two London schools interpret their own experiences of migration, goes even less far.

Between Worlds (National Portrait Gallery, London, until 17 June) features nine prominent visits, from the four Indian kings from North America in 1710 to Maharajah Dalip Singh, a romantic figure in the eyes of Queen Victoria.

The visitors stories are fascinating. Theres Sake Dean Mahomed, travel writer, Indian food restaurateur (Londons first curry house?), bathhouse entrepreneur and shampooing surgeon to King George IV.

Theres the caricatured, exhibited and anatomised Sara Baartman, the Hottentot Venus.

Or theres Mai, who travelled from Tahiti to England on a ship that was part of one of Captain Cooks voyages to the South Pacific.

There are history of art aspects, such as the painting of William Ansah Sessarakoo - believed to be the only identifiable African who came to London in the 18th century to be represented in an oil painting.

There are indications of how the visitors, even when subject to colonial force, followed their own agendas. Mai apparently pretended to be from a higher class in his own society in order to be treated better here and thus gain access to weapons for use against his enemies.

The exhibition also points to the impact of many of the visitors, by drawing attention to, for example, the way they were featured in plays and portraits decades after their visits.

But the exhibition lacks information and context. Give us some estimates of the numbers of people from other countries in Britain during the period covered, and tell us what they were doing.

The organisers resort to the usual weasel phrases, such as Between Worlds has many contemporary cultural resonances, a phrase I find as annoying as problematic. If there are resonances, spell them out; if there are problems, say what they are.

(The apparent nervousness of the organisers was illustrated at the press preview, with the comment that we havent shied away from the darker side of colonial contact: its a boast, but its almost an apology. Why on earth in 21st century multicultural Britain would you even consider shying away from i.e. censoring - colonialisms dark side, as though it was some slightly embarrassing add-on to a noble cause, rather than inherent to colonialism itself?)

Since the travellers picked out for the exhibition are among the most famous to visit Britain, it would surely be worth speculating on their impact on British attitudes and stereotypes, or indeed whether part of their fame arises from their apparent fit with British preconceptions of the merits and demerits of various overseas communities and cultures.

Downstairs, in the basement, the Gallery features Different Worlds - now theres a real resonance: upstairs, the famous visitors, often royals, courtiers or would-be members of the elite; downstairs, young recent immigrants.

The idea was for the students from two schools to examine the lives of the people featured in the exhibition, to look at pictures in the Gallery, and then to show their own portraits and written responses (or in another stultifying phrase, to respond to the narratives explored in Between Worlds). It doesnt work. Firstly, it is detached from the exhibition to which it is supposed to be companion. Secondly, some of the responses include Gallery pictures picked out by the pupils, others dont. Its confusing, and lacks focus. And why are there so few girls?

A couple of sections of text show how interesting this project might have been: one boy writes, My family is third generation British Bengali and I want to show that rather than there being a conflict for me between these cultures my conflict is between sport and education.

* Also: Portraits, People and Abolition: A Journey Through the National Portrait Gallerys Collection, 17 March-22 July, a trail that highlights individuals featured in the Gallery who were involved in slavery or its abolition, from Queen Elizabeth 1 to Shami Chakrabarti.

* Full listing of global justice events in London