3409 x 5114 px | 28,9 x 43,3 cm | 11,4 x 17 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
3 agosto 2015
Ubicazione:
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Altre informazioni:
This bronze statue of King Edward VII, identified by the royal inscription and the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense, stands within the grounds of the Government Museum, Chennai. Installed in 1903 at the height of British imperial power, it functioned as a public assertion of colonial sovereignty and racial hierarchy, legitimised through the visual language of monarchy. Its current displacement from the civic centre to a marginal museum courtyard mirrors India’s uneven process of decolonising urban space—where symbols of domination are contained rather than dismantled. The ornate coat of arms and decorative motifs reveal how empire inscribed itself onto the built environment, converting art into an instrument of rule. Today, the statue endures not as a neutral heritage object but as a site of historical contention within a landscape still marked by the afterlives of colonial power.
