This commission brings together two artworks made almost 100 years apart. Both works were produced for the same room in Tate Britain. One is a mural, painted directly on to the walls of the gallery in the 1920s. The other a film installation, commissioned in response to the mural. Together these artworks invite questions about how we engage with artworks from the past.
Keith Piper Viva Voce 2024
In Viva Voce, Keith Piper stages an imagined conversation between artist Rex Whistler and a fictional academic, Professor Shepherd.
‘Viva voce’ is a Latin phrase meaning ‘by word of mouth’. It is the name given to an oral examination in which students are questioned about their work. An academic and lecturer as well as an artist, Piper notes: ‘I was struck by how young Whistler was. As a teacher, I speak to young artists all the time, questioning them about their practice.’ In Viva Voce, Professor Shepherd asks Whistler about his 1927 mural The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats, challenging him on its racist narrative and imagery.
Piper explores Whistler’s other work from the period alongside a pamphlet held in the Tate Archive titled In Pursuit of Rare Meats, Being the Story of the Rex Whistler Murals in the Tate Gallery Restaurant. Written by Whistler’s close friend Edith Olivier (1872–1948), this ‘allegorical story’ provides the narrative for the mural, including parts that were never completed. Piper uses Olivier’s words to examine Whistler’s artistic intentions.
Piper’s film installation also considers the social and political context in which Whistler was working. It weaves together live action, archival photography and film. It includes footage of Black soldiers during the First World War and Black American cabaret singer Florence Mills (1896–1927), who performed in London in 1926. Professor Shepherd asks if Whistler attended the ‘Races in Residence’ displays at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition or joined the 1926 General Strike.
Piper notes: ‘I want to give a sense of how and why the mural exists.’ Viva Voce invites us to carefully examine historical images, the motives of those who made them and the context in which they were produced.
Keith Piper Viva Voce 2024. © Keith Piper
Keith Piper Viva Voce 2024. © Keith Piper
Keith Piper Viva Voce 2024. © Keith Piper
In 1926, the director of the National Gallery of British Art (now Tate) commissioned Rex Whistler to produce a mural ‘as decoration for the new refreshment room’. Whistler spent 18 months painting The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats before the gallery restaurant opened in 1927.
Over the years, visitors and staff have raised concerns about the racist imagery included in the mural. In 2013, the work was restored and a booklet accompanying the mural was updated to acknowledge this content. A further text was installed at the entrance of the restaurant in 2018.
The restaurant closed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the status of the mural was brought into question. Tate’s board of trustees agreed that the mural should be preserved as a historic work of art, but a more appropriate viewing context was needed. Artists, art historians, cultural advisors, civic representatives and young creatives contributed to a series of discussions exploring possible next steps. Following these conversations, Tate decided to commission an artist to make work in dialogue with the mural, reframing it for contemporary audiences.
Keith Piper is the first artist to receive the commission. A key figure in the British Black Arts Movement, Piper believes museums have a responsibility to ‘collect and conserve historical objects’.
He comments: ‘We can only fully understand history and all its complexity if we are able to go back and encounter the objects themselves.’ By critically engaging with the mural’s history and content, Piper’s work creates a new space of reflection and discussion. As Director of Tate Britain, Alex Farquharson notes, ‘this approach allows us to reflect the values we hold today and to bring new voices and ideas to the fore’.
This panoramic mural follows an imagined hunting expedition on a journey through European art and architectural styles. It includes racist imagery that speaks to legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and British colonialism.
In 1926, Rex Whistler was commissioned to paint a mural for the refreshment room at the National Gallery of British Art (now Tate). Still a student at London’s Slade School of Fine Art at the time, he was assisted by Katharine Ann (Nan) West (1904–1930). It is one of the few large-scale works Whistler made during his short career and helped build his reputation as a leading mural artist. After volunteering to fight in the Second World War, he was killed in action aged 39.
Whistler’s mural depicts an expedition in search of rare food and drink, led by the fictional Duke of Epicurania. A hunting party sets off from the steps of the gallery. It travels across rivers and seas, through pastoral landscapes and wild forests. The group shoots at leopards and deer and meets unicorns and mermaids. They pass islands topped with Italian cities, encounter shipwrecks and ruins, and visit the Great Wall of China. They return home laden with spoils, greeted by a cheering crowd.
As part of this journey, the group kidnaps a Black child while his naked mother watches from a tree overhead. The Great Wall of China scene includes caricatures of East Asian people. The impact of these racist depictions is compounded by the fact they were designed for a decorative mural in a restaurant. Whistler wanted his work to create the effect of chinoiserie wallpaper. Popular in the 18th century, the style often features imagined and stereotyped representations of East Asian cultures.
Viva Voce credits
Ellen O’Grady, Mrs. Shepherd
Ian Pink, Rex Whistler
Cindy Evans, Edith Olivier
Keith Piper, Director
Jacqueline Malcolm, Director Of Drama
Lauren Gee, Producer
Cameron Martin-Campbell, Production Coordinator
Morgan K Spencer, Director Of Photography
Kat Spencer, Steadicam Operator
Daniel Glazebrook, Focus Puller
Nefeli Dimakea, Second Assistant Camera
Ege Caglar, Second Assistant Camera
Stella Tribe-Smith, Digitial Imaging Technician
Dragos Czinjepolschi, Gaffer
Milena Starkova, Gaffer’s Assistant
Rosa Brooke, Gaffer’s Assistant
Luigi Truscelli, First Spark
Cleo Lim, Second Spark
Bahar Dopran, Sound Recordist
Feline Rahel Monke, Sound Assistant
Karol Malcolm, Costume Designer
Paola Mateeva, Costume Assistant
Andra Anghelache, Costume Assistant
Abra Kennedy, Hair Designer
Adriana Haloiu, Makeup Artist
Saraphina Mattis, Consulting Editor
Anna Barsukova, Colour Grader
Gary Stewart, Sound Designer
Tansy Spinks, Violinist (Variations On Florence Mills)
Lukasz Soltysiak, Studio Sound Recordist
Diane Symons, Additional Research
Middlesex University acknowledgements
Professor Paul Cobley & The Aci Research Committee
Eve Sevume Kauma
Clemente Ruidaz (Mdx Works)
Rob Pickard
Young Yoon (Kyen)
Keith Piper's Viva Voce will be screened with subtitles every other screening.
Tate Britain's step-free entrance is on Atterbury Street. It has automatic sliding doors and there is a ramp down to the entrance with central handrails. This entrance is on the Lower floor.
The commission is located on the Lower floor near the Rotunda staircase.
