Intro.
Q. How did you first meet Donald Rodney?
Q. What would Donald Rodney have thought about having his archives donated to Tate?
Q. What was Donald Rodney's involvement in the Black Art movement of the 1980s?
Q. What was Donald Rodney's work about when you met him?
Q. What key themes underpin Donald Rodney's work?
Q. How do you feel about Black History Month?

Q. What would Donald Rodney have thought about having his archives devoted to Tate?

Jeremy Akerman

I think that Donald took it for granted that the Tate would be the best place for his archives. I think that he was surprised that the Tate didn't pay him more attention when he was alive and make him some offers that he couldn't refuse.

Virginia Nimarkoh

Who knows. I'm sure that Donald, like any artist, would recognise the value of having his work kept for posterity by an institution like the Tate. With Donald being such a technophile, I think he would have got a kick out of having the archives digitised.

Eddie Chambers

Better late than never.

Michael Tooby

Hilarity would have given way to a certain intrigued reflectiveness about the link to Henry Tate's wealth, the sugar trade and slavery; which in turn would have given him some really good ideas for some new work.

Elizabeth Ann McGregor

I think he would have loved it - what artist wouldn't! He would undoubtedly have had a laugh about it too - he never took himself too seriously and his wicked sense of humour made working with him such a delight.

David Lawson

Donald once told me that a project he wanted to make in the future was a scale sized Tate Britain, small enough to fit in a gallery room, but standing feet high and made entirely of white sugar cubes. He was then going to place an elderly black museum attendant in front of it guarding the piece. The significance of the piece was that the Tate Gallery was built on the procedes of profits from sugar during slavery and one would see the irony in having an elderly black attendant guarding this artwork made from sugar cubes.

David Thorp

I think Donald would have had mixed feelings about having his archives donated to the Tate. He would have viewed their acquisition with ironic humour while acknowledging the importance for a black artist to have a presence in a major collection. He had reservations about the Tate and the British art world generally because of its marginalisation of black artists and curators. In fact, he was planning a work about the Tate Gallery (as it was then, now Tate Britain) that was to take the form of a model of the Gallery made of sugar cubes as a reference to the Tate's original benefactor. The work was also intended to refer to the site of the Gallery, a former prison that had links to the slave trade. The final work, when on display was to be overseen by black attendants. A reference to the fact that black people were and, to the best of my knowledge, still are only employed by Tate in the most menial roles, usually as cleaners, security guards and cloakroom attendants. I think, on balance, Donald would be pleased that his archive was going to the Tate, although I am sure he would be concerned about how people would have access to it. But he would be disappointed that so little has changed as far as the advancement of black people within the institution is concerned

Mark Sealy

I think he would feel that he was in very good company. Its not a bad place to be donated to and its great that the Tate has actually accepted the work as well. I think he would be pleased about that as, in a sense it institutionalizes the work. Obviously it is tragic that Donald is no longer with us and died very early in his career, but ultimately it is in an institution like that where most people—whether they would admit it or not—aspire to be housed in. Its certainly much more accessible and beneficial than being housed in a trust run by either family or friends who do not have the capacity to make the work accessible to key curators and individuals.

He would have also seen an irony to it because obviously the politics and the history of the Tate are wrapped up in the history of colonial Britain. So much of Donald’s work was addressing the political state and the relationship of black subjects within that political state. That’s one of the ironies of life really, but I think it would be an irony that he could certainly live with.

Marlene Smith

The irony of it would not have been lost! Donald would have had endless fun sending up the whole idea of the Tate having his archives. He would have used it as an opportunity to comment on the way living artists are marginalised and ignored instead of supported to further develop their practice. There is something quite distasteful about an art world which may treat Donald better dead than alive.