In the summer of 2011, in south London’s Croydon, a century-old, family-owned furniture store was burned to the ground. House of Reeves was destroyed in the midst of riots that began after Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old unarmed Black man, was shot dead by police. The unrest that followed took place against a backdrop of prevailing economic austerity.
A film set depicting a replica of Reeves Corner in Croydon, the former site of the shop, is now featured in A Riot in Three Acts, a new work by artist, filmmaker, and composer Imran Perretta, opening at the Somerset House Studios on 26 September.
Visitors will witness the artist's “deconstructed cinematic experience”, including a short documentary clip taken in Croydon after a night of protests and riots, and displayed on the artist's old Blackberry mobile phone. An earlier provider of end-to-end encrypted messaging, the device was a key communication tool during the 2011 riots.
In addition, a score titled A Requiem for the Dispossessed, composed by Perretta and performed by Manchester Camerata orchestra will be played throughout the exhibition, and performed live on selected dates.
Perretta draws connections between the London riots of 2011 and recent far-right riots, but highlights their vast ideological differences
Imran Perretta. Photography by Zora Küttner
Perretta describes the installation as a symbol of the riots, and of “the collateral damage of this righteous anger of the public who had been disenfranchised by the state”. That the site of the fire has today become a “wasteland” and a “graveyard for the dream of change”, speaks to not only the state of the United Kingdom, but of the world, the artist says.
The exhibition, Perretta explains, “is about the legacy of protest in the contemporary era”. The artist points to a “crackdown” on protests by the Home Office, pointing to the police handling of recent pro-Palestinian protests, and the use of facial recognition software.
The artist believes that a line should be drawn between the 2011 riots and those that have erupted across the UK in recent weeks—although, he says, there is a massive ideological difference.
“One was about police brutality, about the subjugation of predominantly working-class people and people of colour,” explains the artist. Meanwhile, the recent riots, he says, “have sprung from a quite terrifying rise in the voice of the far-right and this violent strain of white supremacy that is no longer under the surface, [and] exists in plain sight.”
The artist hopes that A Riots In Three Acts will encourage audiences to reflect on the legacy of 2011’s riots, and to channel righteous anger in the right direction. “Solidarity is such a powerful tool,” Peretta says, “and I hope that this show can help to bring about some of that, because we desperately need it.”
- A Riot in Three Acts, Somerset House Studios, London, 27 September-10 November