Cassette 1: Tate Modern (1971)

**'The Remembrance Wing' dedicated to Claudia Atieno** in the Tate Modern, London. Introduction by Fiona Williamson, curator.

> *"Look closely at the oranges below the flower. What do you see? Is death present and unavoidable? Do colours dictate immutability? Follow the almost winding stem of the orchid. How many strokes are in such a thin stalk? Can wispiness be conflated with predetermination? Do you care?"*
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The Remembrance Wing was created to commemorate the artists who lived and died during the Great Reckoning, and whose work looks at the history of the New Society. Atieno was chosen for her depiction of the dramatic social shifts taking place around the globe, as well as the deeply personal realities of day-to-day life.

## Still Life with Orchid

The painting features a bright pink orchid with withering leaves, and below it, subtly rotting oranges. In the background, there is billowing drapery.

It was the first piece of Atieno's to gain international critical attention, although she had been well-regarded in the art community before its debut in 1962. It was sold to a private collector for an undisclosed sum, but was willed to the Tate Modern, and had been part of their permanent collection since 1969.

Atieno, although reluctant to talk about most of her work, seemed particularly disdainful about this piece when Roimata Mangakāhia asked her about it during their first meeting in 1970. She felt it was often misinterpreted as symbolising the unavoidable presence of death, when she had intended for it to be about the unknowable phases of life.

When attempting to articulate her own feelings about the painting during that first interview, Roimata spoke for too long and Claudia was frustrated into breaking a plate in the café, resulting in them being asked to leave. Claudia refused to be interviewed any further, but invited Roimata back to the café a few days later, appearing to have forgotten the incident entirely.

## House with Yellow Door

This painting depicts Claudia's childhood home in Tanzania, with greyish-brown wooden siding. The house seemed to be important to Claudia, even thirty years after she had left it. She had lived in the house with her biological family; a mother and two sisters.

She was born in the "dying days" of the Reckoning, and was 13 when the Society's family separation policies were becoming prominent, so she was given a less intense version of the regimen. She was not made to forget her family, but was encouraged away from them.

> *More about this painting and related paintings in Cassette #5: Van Gogh Museum (1977) and Cassette #9: Metropolitan Museum of Art (1981)*
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## The Charcoal Dish

When Atieno was a teenager and the Society was starting to take shape, rumours began to circulate about an artificial island the size of Malta which housed a secret government facility. At one point, these rumours were even treated as fact, but they had died down enough to be remembered with ridicule by 1948. This is also the year that Atieno began working on "The Charcoal Dish" which took several months of working on it all day, every day - the most intense painting schedule she'd ever kept.

It depicts a vast, low, grey building, curving slightly upwards from the ground, described by Roimata as "monolithic and impenetrable." Despite the building's short stature, it seems to dominate the trees surrounding it. To the left of the building in the foreground, many happy people reside, and eat from the feast laid out on the red and white cloth on the ground. In the background and to the right of the building, there are blurry and indistinct figures, almost hidden by the shadow of the trees. Roimata encourages the viewer to lean in close and see the details.

"The Charcoal Dish" had a good reception on the whole, except for the critic Alfra Bond, who abhorred political art and believed that artists stood to benefit off war and strife. She thought that Atieno was overly critical of the Society, and that any such criticisms were a call for the Reckoning to resume.

## Woman in Bath

In 1971, this was Atieno's most recent work. It depicts Roimata in the bath, one arm trailing to the floor and making a puddle on the tile. Her face is turned from view, showing only her dark coiled hair. On their second meeting at the Joyeuse, Claudia talked expansively and openly, and when the café closed, she invited Roimata back to her house on an island just off the Cornwall coast. Unexpectedly, she ended up staying the night, and even for some time after that.

The house was always full of activity, and the friends of Atieno's who had helped her fix up bits of the battered old house in the past months were often found around it, although they could not fix the bath. They brought a freestanding bath from the mainland instead, but failed to get it up the stairs, and instead it stayed in the corner of the sitting room, mostly obscured by a screen.

On the first night she was there, Claudia began to sketch Roimata as she bathed. Despite her reluctance to be the subject of any such scrutiny, Claudia was persuasive, and she allowed herself to be painted in oils. Roimata said she could not say any more about the painting, and directed the listener to make their own judgements about it.

> *More about this painting in Cassette #9: Metropolitan Museum of Art (1981)*
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## Self Portrait with Cat

Roimata claimed that Claudia was reluctant to talk about this painting, but also noted that she seemed strangely incapable of answering even simple questions about it. When asked about the cat, Claudia simply said she had never owned one, despite the affection and familiarity that the painting seemed to depict according to Roimata's eye.

She said that she thought Claudia would like a cat, and seemed fairly confident in this judgement despite only knowing her for a short period of time. She felt that she and Claudia had a connection like the one she had hoped for, and expressed a feeling of belonging at the Cornwall house. She was particularly drawn to a low-hanging cliff that was perfect for diving off when the tide was high. When the tide was low, it was treacherous to dive, but beautiful to paint and draw.

> *More about this painting and related paintings in Cassette #2: Ulster Museum (1973), Cassette #10: Karikari Contemporary Gallery (1986), and Season 3, Reel #10: June 21, 1961*
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