The British architect Sir John Soane was born on this day, 10 September 1753. Soane’s incredible legacy lives on at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and of course, the Soane Museum – his former home and offices in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Currently on view at the Soane is a unique exhibition of works by British Liberian artist Lina Iris Viktor, sculptural works made especially for the Soane, placed throughout the museum and its opulent historic collections of art and architectural relics.

Viktor’s works move seamlessly between centuries, drawing on images and techniques from a plurality of historical periods, cultures, and mythologies, from ancient Egypt to medieval illumination and indigenous Australian art. Her sculptures and paintings are crafted carefully with elemental materials, from bronze and ceramic to wood and silk – materials chosen for their universal and perennial appeal, employed by artists and artisans for centuries, as well as for their formal and tactile associations and resonances.


This work, Constellations VIII, uses one of Viktor’s signature materials – pure 24-carat gold, applied with obsidian acrylic paint and varnish onto a matt canvas, which emphasizes the dazzling allure of the gold. Viktor uses gilding to produce a stunning visual effect – but it also has a deeper significance, addressing ideas about the finite and the infinite, beauty and myth, and evoking deep-rooted sociopolitical ideas about value and labour, particularly to black bodies. Viktor’s Mythic Time / Tens of Thousands of Rememberings, continues at the Soane Museum to 19 January and entry is free.

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