Ini Archibong grew up in California and is now based in Switzerland. In 2016, he began collaborating with skilled glassblowers there to make monumental chandeliers. You can see one here: Dark Vernus (meaning Dark Spring), a suspended gathering of vessel-like forms with a powerful spiritual presence. 

This vestibule also displays two nineteenth-century bronze busts of an African man and woman, by the French artist Charles-Henri Cordier. The depictions are arrestingly beautiful, but also exoticised. 

Archibong chose not to address these problematic representations directly, instead, his work literally rises above them.

The vaulted space, which incorporates a musicians' gallery, is periodically filled with his music, a new piece created for Chatsworth. Like his Dark Vernus, the composition is epic, abstract, and inspiring.

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