Reframing Picton as an “Encounter” with Colonization, Decolonization, and Postcolonialism: Learning and Reconfiguration in the National Museum of Wales

In the National Museum of Wales, visitors are challenged to think about the impact of colonization by engaging with three interconnected exhibits, beginning with Reframing Picton. By pulling down Thomas Picton's portrait from the walls, reframing it in packing materials on the floor, setting it in opposition to a truth-telling historical narrative, and juxtaposing it with The Wound is a Portal photographic display and the installation, Spirited, the visitor is asked to rethink how we should remember historical figures from the colonial past. While walking backwards and forwards, in and around, and across the three rooms, the visitor becomes entangled in a learning experience about colonization, decolonization, and postcolonialism. This paper examines our encounter with these three exhibits and concepts as researchers/visitors. Learning in the museum relies increasingly on affective engagement, and in the National Museum of Wales, we find an example through which to explore how this process can work in practice. Using walking methodologies and thinking with theory, we consider how affective engagement can become a means to learn differently, and deeply, in the museum.