Power to the People

Made in response to the exhibition Disobedient Objects this commission reflected the idea of a people’s history of art and design from below. It invited visitors, as they crossed the threshold of the museum, to consider activist social movements as an important part of our culture. 

Quotations inserted between the steps leading up to the main entrance represented the voices of activists and political thinkers, from 19th-century anarchist Emma Goldman to an anonymous slogan on a 1970s badge. On either side of the entrance, two ‘ceramic posters’ collaged together images of protest in Britain, past and present, including actions that Reichardt, her friends and family were involved in. They intentionally covered over an inscription commemorating the inauguration of the building by the ‘Empress and Emperor of India’ (Victoria and Albert).