Cassette 4: Bardo Museum (1975)

**'Unfinished Nightmares: The New Sketches of Claudia Atieno'** at the Bardo Museum, Tunis. Introduction by Ama Cudjoe, director of curation.

> *"I hated her for that. I hated that about her. Look again at her gradients. Don’t they make you mad? Think about everything you are incapable of achieving."*
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The featured works were allegedly found beneath the Cornwall house in a crawlspace discovered by the police in 1973.

## untitled figure with hat

This drawing depicts the Society's Secretary of Trade, Vishwathi Ramadoss (identified by Roimata) wearing a brown wide-brimmed fedora and a soft blue sari. She has a wry smile which to Roimata believes is in reference to the juxtaposed cultures of her outfit. The museum did not believe the figure was intended to be anyone in particular, but Roimata knew Ramadoss' face well because of the frequency of her visits to the Cornwall house as well as Atieno's Mwanza apartment.

Ramadoss admired Atieno's art but resented how critical she was of the Societal Council. Roimata invites the listener to scrutinise the intentions behind Ramadoss' technically perfect smile. One of Atieno's most notorious paintings, *Ferngulch, Madurai,* was overt reference to the surveillance scandal of 1958 against the Societal Council and specifically Ramadoss, whose hometown was Madurai, and whose involvement in the scandal was never proven.

## untitled automobile with driver

Although the Royal Cornwall Museum had correctly noted that the car in this drawing was a 1950 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, a car owned by the late president of the Bank of Western Europe, Archie MacPherson, they failed to point out that the man depicted in the sketch was not Archie himself. The man depicted is smaller and bespectacled, and also appears to be carrying a gun in a shoulder holster (though this is cause for some debate). He is not wearing any uniform elements consistent with the International Police, so some speculation suggests that this driver is also a private security guard carrying illegal firearms.

MacPherson was a collector of Atieno's works as well as Pavel Zubov's and Cassandra Reza's and had underwritten the Tate Modern exhibit in 1971. He frequently shared conspiracy theories with Atieno, among which was the funding of an institute to imprison violators of the 1955 Family Dissolution Act by Ramadoss. MacPherson was found dead outside his home in 1974, apparently of a heart attack.

## untitled waves

This is a very technically adept cross-section of waves crashing on a rocky shore. The markings by the rocks were boldest and the sky above them darkest, with the pencil getting lighter as it got further out to sea, representing not light but nothingness.

Roimata says the cliffs off the Cornwall house were always her favourite thing to sketch, and she would often practice gradients with the waves from the patio. Atieno asked once why she drew the scene so often, and she answered that it was a good way to fill both her time and her sketchbook. Shortly afterwards Claudia's own sketchbook had been full of sketches like this one, which Roimata saw as infuriatingly better than her own, remarking that she hated how masterful Ateino was.

## untitled dinner party

This drawing, rather than depict one of the frequent parties at the Cornwall house (which usually ran through the night and into the next day, since people couldn't leave the island safely while it was dark), seems subdued. The guests seem stiff, well-dressed, and even slightly nervous about the glasses of wine they're holding. Roimata cannot discern specific identities but suggests they are intended to be members of the Societal Council, nervous about Atieno's politically-perceived art. She is unsure of this interpretation as Claudia frequently invited Councilmembers to her parties as long as they didn't spoil the fun. Councilmembers often attended, and they would (according to Roimata) take note of who else was there and what they did. Claudia, in turn, took note of them.

Roimata talks briefly about Tanzania, Atieno's home country, and how the local government officials were made redundant at the formation of the Society because Dodoma now reported to the Regional Seat in Nairobi. Due to economic growth in the region, the European population in the African regions increased, and this contributed to Claudia feeling disconnected from her homeland. When she travelled the world as an artist, many of her childhood friends felt she had abandonned her home.

## untitled artists at work

This sketch was of an occasion where a group of artists worked together to develop ideas, showing three artists gathered around a painting. Roimata had believed that Claudia was featured in the sketch, as the painting on the easel seems to be *Sunshine Afternoon*, but since it was painted in 1968 and she dates this work in the late 1950s or early 60s, this is probably not the case. Instead, she recognises the "signature" rays of light and the woman with the long dark hair as Vanessa Nguyen. She does not have any proof that Vanessa painted *Sunshine Afternoon* first, but she does suspect that it was her original idea. She wonders when inspiration becomes theft.

## untitled rope and parrot

Seeing this sketch for the first time disturbed Roimata, not because its contents are disturbing (it as a perfectly nice drawing of a square knot and a bird) but because it is clearly copied from one of Roimata's works. Although the museum has identified the bird as an African Grey parrot and refuses to acknowledge Roimata's claims, she knows the bird is a kea because she painted it from life. A friend on the South Island of Aotearoa who worked in nature conservation and had let her use the injured bird as a subject.

Roimata had brought the painting with her to London, hoping to show it in a gallery, but over time became dissatisfied with it and left it in the closet of the Plymouth flat with her other unfinished works. Atieno had rarely visited the flat as she found it cramped and too far away, but after her last visit there in 1970, she had noticed her trunk was open and some of the pieces missing. At the time, she had thought it must have broken in transit without her noticing. What Roimata found most infuriating about the plagiarised piece was not that she had taken the painting without asking, but that she had improved it with only a sketch.

Roimata concludes the autio tour by mentioning that she is still sure that Claudia is not dead, even if she never returns to the public sphere. She mentions that the sketches were found by Pavel, contradicting Ama at the beginning of the tape, and is suspicious of both his presence at the house and the idea of an undiscovered crawlspace, since she believes she would have found the pieces herself in that case. However, she hopes this means that Claudia passed the sketches on to Pavel herself and that more "undiscovered" paintings will show up in the future.