The Worlds A Stage — 7 Ages of Man Statue

The seven ages of man statue is a cast aluminum totem pole of heads representing and inscribed by the Shakespeare speech “the worlds a stage”. It is located within the new brutalist courtyard of Baynard house offices and while unusual in appearance, its grey highly textured outer layer somehow fits perfectly into this space.

While at a surface level this monument is just another of many monuments in the London celebrating Shakespeare’s work, observing closer at its form and delving deeper into the story behind the poem it signifies, this monument can be seen to represent far more about British culture than a simple ode to Shakespeare.

Many similarities in form can be drawn between this statue and the traditional native American art of totem poles. Native American totem poles serve the purpose of telling a personal, national, or family's story through the stacking of different heads. In many ways, this statue does the same, appropriating the art of those Britain colonized and taking it even further. It does not just represent the story of a nation or a family but, according to the title of the poem it is based on, represents the whole world over. This colonial undertone portrays British ideals as being global and is furthered by the linguistics of the poem representing the world as “a stage”, a theatre of war and conflict in which we dictate character roles. This detachment from true humanity and separation of people lies central to colonial thought, a thought process that still lies prominently in British identity. The use of such a foreign style to represent something as British as Shakespeare also portrays the culture we live in as a melting pot and almost entirely informed by external and foreign references. In the same way that England doesn’t truly have a native people, it doesn’t truly have a native culture rather its culture is built off of the backs of others. This idea is furthered when delving deeper into the poem on which this totem is based on. This work by the most prominent British writer in history may not be as “British” as it first seems. Shakespeare’s concept of the 7 ages of man is derived and based on the “Zodiacus vita” a Latin poem he would have read whilst studying at school. This shows British culture as being almost wholly appropriated from prior foreign cultures. In the same way, Shakespeare reworks the “Zodiacus vita”, Richard Kindersley (the designer of this monument) reworks and arguably steals the style of native Americans. Furthermore, the traditional materiality of the totem pole is disregarded and replaced by a textured aluminum cast, fitting in nicely with the focus on materiality seen within its new brutalist surroundings. It is imposing and industrial encompassing the industrial foundations of Britain that made such colonizing actions and appropriation possible in the first place.

While some could view all of this as simply representing British culture as being based on many multicultural influences, I would argue the context as to how those influences were attained shows British culture as much darker. This monument, in many ways, can be seen similarly to the ancient Egyptian monolith “Cleopatra’s Needle”, an example of stolen history and culture.

• FOOTNOTE, If I had significantly more words to play with I would also have delved into the fact only white male heads are shown in this statue.