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Abstract
Spaces in organisations are increasingly recognised as socially constructed places, where organisational power is experienced and signalled in multiple ways. One such ambiguously vocal space is the boardroom, where aesthetic knowledge, material culture, and organisational practice combine to frame a space which creates power through its history, its artefacts, and its organisational use. This paper uses Harvey's (Citation1989) framework of material spatial practices, representations, and spaces of representation to examine how the organisational practices used in boardrooms and more particularly the aesthetic objects within the rooms, work to create co‐constructed places of power and oppression. The players in this oppression are not only those with coercive and material power in the organisation, but also the silent material players of the artefacts: portraits and tables, carpets, and other pictures. The nature of the power network thus created is seen to be ambiguous, working to shape the identity and practices of those who supposedly sit comfortably and legitimately in the space as well as those who are excluded.