Government Art Collection Podcasts Government Art Collection

The fourth episode follows the journey of the Government Art Collection artworks from the moment of the attack in 2011 to their return to London for conservation and then back again to Tehran where they were re-installed in February 2019. It features discussions with Alejandra Echenique de Hopton (FCO); Rob Macaire, Her Majesty's Ambassador to Iran; and Andrew Parrat, Head of Collection Care (GAC).

The third episode recounts the dramatic attack on the British Embassy in Tehran in 2011, when a number of works of art from the Government Collection were damaged. It features an interview with Sir Dominick Chilcott, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Ankara and former British Ambassador to Tehran in 2011.

This episode centres on the 19th century, covering the appointment of the first permanent British Ambassador to Tehran, Sir Gore Ouseley; the history of the British Embassy building in Tehran; the portraits of Fath Ali Shah, 2nd Qajar ruler (1772- 1834); and the European tour of Naser al Din Shah (1831-1896). It features a discussion with Dr Moya Carey, Curator of Islamic Collections at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, and Mark Bertram CBE RIBA, author of ‘Room for Diplomacy, Britain’s Diplomatic Buildings

This episode focuses on the early modern period exploring the history of the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722); rituals and banquets at the court of Shah Abbas I (1571-1629); the architecture of Isfahan and English travellers to Isfahan. It features a discussion with Dr Sussan Babaie, Andrew W. Mellon Reader in the Arts of Iran and Islam, Courtauld Institute of Art, and Dr Jan Loop, Professor in Early Modern History at the University of Kent.

In an audio interview with Liliane Lijn, which took place in her north London studio in 2013, the leading international artist gives us an insight into her unique career. Lijn hung out with Surrealists and Beat poets in Paris in the 1960s where she applied Letraset to cylinders and cones and attached them to revolving turntables to create kinetic texts called Poem Machines. From these early beginnings Lijn has gone on to pursue the exploration of light and energy with scientific dedication. In the 1980s she worked on a number of gigantic, plumed and beaded kinetic sculptures that referenced the feminine.

In Cornelia Parker's Rorschach (Endless Column III) 14 flattened silver-plated domestic objects, are suspended on wires in a horizontal line, hovering a few inches above the floor. All the objects -- including a candelabra, a fruit basket and a ladle -- have been squashed by a 250 ton industrial press.

Standing in front of her stunning sculptural installation, purchased by the GAC in 2009, Cornelia Parker gives a revealing interview about what motivated her to make the work. She explains why she chose the particular silver-plated pieces, where she collected them from and what made her pulverise them with an industrial press.

Emphasising that these are silver-plated objects not silver, Parker explains that they are the kind of pieces that people tend to give to commemorate occasions such as weddings, anniversaries and retirement -- this is silver that we all have in our lives.

Cornelia Parker was born in Cheshire. She trained at Gloucester College of Art and Design, Wolverhampton Polytechnic and completed her Master of Fine Art degree at the University of Reading. In 1995, she collaborated with performer Tilda Swinton in The Maybe, an installation for the Serpentine Gallery. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997 and a major exhibition of her work was held at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1998. In 2001 she was commissioned to produce a sculpture for the new British Galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Two major solo shows of her work were held in 2008 at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and at the Whitechapel Gallery, London