YCBA Tour of Interior Dialogues Exhibition by ESC Fellow Yasmine Chokrane

European Studies Undergraduate Fellow and YCBA student guide Yasmine Chokrane (Trumbull College, ’25) led a tour of the Yale Center for British Art’s “Interior Dialogues: Works from the Collection” exhibition. With the YCBA closing on February 27, Chokrane’s tour was an ideal opportunity for attendees, several of whom had not been to the YCBA before, to enjoy the exhibition and collections in-person before the Center’s closure. Chokrane is a sophomore double majoring in Comparative Literature and Political Science. Her research interests include the legacies of European imperial projects, particularly in the context of the Francophone world, and their impact on migration policy and art repatriation.

Chokrane’s tour focused broadly on the question of “What is British Art?” She began the tour in a first-floor room devoted primarily to landscapes and portraits – the types of works that many participants associated with the term “British Art.” The “Interior Dialogues: Works from the Collection” exhibition featured, among other works, collaged portraits of intimate, domestic spaces by Nigerian-born artist Njideka Akunyli Crosby. Chokrane engaged the audience by asking what Akunyli Crosby’s works might suggest about how bodies interact with space and the complexities of postcolonial belonging and identity. Other works represented various aspects of private life and invited questions about the portrayals of sexuality, women, and making the interior external.

The tour was held exclusively in-person at the Yale Center for British Art on Friday, February 17.