On May 6, 2023, the day of King Charles III’s coronation, London was divided between celebration and protest.
Cyanotype: Not My King 1 , Trafalgar Square, London, 2023, Tracey Thorne
Cyanotype: Not My King 2, Trafalgar Square, London, 2023, Tracey Thorne
On May 6, 2023, the day of King Charles III’s coronation, London was divided between celebration and protest. Trafalgar Square became the focal point of the nation, not only for the coronation but also for the voices gathered in opposition.
While large crowds filled the square, those in the #NotMyKing protest were pushed into a narrow alley nearby, contained by a heavy police presence. Standing on the fringes of the protest, I looked toward the square, catching sight of Samson Kambalu’s Antelope sculpture on the Fourth Plinth—towering above the protestors. It seemed like the perfect, and most accidental anti-colonial landscape captured in that fleeting moment.
I'm not sure that when this commission was placed on the fourth plinth in 2022 the artist imagined it would witness a King's Coronation.
Kambalu’s Antelope reimagines a 1914 photograph of Baptist preacher and pan-Africanist John Chilembwe, seen standing alongside European missionary John Chorley. This photograph was taken during the opening of Chilembwe’s church in what is now Malawi, and in it, Chilembwe is notably wearing a hat—an open act of defiance against colonial rules that forbade Africans from wearing hats in front of Europeans. A year after this image was captured, Chilembwe led an uprising against colonial forces, an effort that ultimately led to his death and the destruction of his church.
On the plinth, Chilembwe stands towering, elevated to a larger-than-life scale in contrast to the life-sized Chorley beside him. In amplifying Chilembwe's presence, Kambalu brings visibility to histories often overshadowed in the story of the British Empire. His piece reveals the resilience of those who resisted oppression, reclaiming space for narratives rarely represented in public monuments. Read more about the artist here
The scene inspired me to create two cyanotype prints titled Not My King, developed on Arches paper to capture the historical resonance of the protest and the powerful symbolism of Kambalu’s work linked to the legacies of colonialism.
The second print focuses on a protest sign held up by a demonstrator, with Canada House in the background. Canada House (French: Maison du Canada) is a Greek Revival building on Trafalgar Square in London, serving as the chancery of the High Commission of Canada in the UK since 1925.
Not My King (2) - cyanotype is currently on display at the Library of Birmingham, in my exhibition Intended for Jamaica
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