Abstract

Since the EU referendum Leavers and Remainers have increasingly used occult metaphors to attack each other, as they decry the UK’s drift into ‘uncharted waters’ or descent into ‘tribalism’. How might gender and race shape this current crisis of British identity? In 2017 Rita Duffy created Soften the Border, an installation of hand-knitted votive dolls on the Northern Irish-Irish border. In 2018 Project O exhibited Saved at London’s Somerset House, a video depicting women of colour performing magical rituals in a post-apocalyptic watery wasteland. What might these artworks tell us about the ways in which magic has long been weaponised by patriarchal white supremacy, as well as the ways in which the supernatural has also been used as a form of political resistance? Soften the Border and Saved offer an image of a UK no longer ruling the waves, unable to ‘take back control’ and haunted by ghosts of empire.

摘要

自从欧盟公投以来，脱欧派和留欧派越来越多地使用神秘的比喻来互相攻击，因为他们谴责英国已陷入“未知水域”或陷入“部落主义”。性别和种族将如何塑造当前的英国身份危机？2017 年，丽塔·达菲 (Rita Duffy) 创作了“柔化边界” ( Soften the Border)，这是在北爱尔兰-爱尔兰边界上手工编织的奉献娃娃的装置。2018 年，Project O在伦敦萨默塞特宫展出了Saved，一段视频描绘了有色人种女性在后世界末日的水荒地表演魔法仪式。这些艺术品能告诉我们什么关于魔法长期以来被父权制白人至上主义武器化的方式，以及超自然现象也被用作政治抵抗形式的方式？软化边界和拯救提供了一个英国不再统治海浪、无法“收回控制权”并被帝国的幽灵所困扰的形象。