Man and Brother
"Am I not a Man and a Brother" was the eighteenth-century slogan used on a medallion produced by potter and social reformer Josiah Wedgwood to promote the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade. The movement, led by politician William Wilberforce, eventually led to the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.
This body of work represents the influence that slavery had over the rise of the British Empire and the perspective of reformers such as Wedgwood who were indirectly yet inextricably tied to the financial wealth generated by exploitative labour in Britain and its colonies.
- Design for the anti-slavery medallion modelled by William Hackwood in 1787.
- Josiah Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion.
- Enlightenment, Digitally printed lithophane of anti-slavery medallion.
- The Sweetened Path 2.2m x 2.2m floor consisting of 22500 painted sugar cubes.
- British Landscapes, Paper Plates showing 'alternate views' of the British Landscape and which take the form of landscapes from Caribbean sugar plantations. These imitate the style of Wedgwood's "Frog Service", a dinner service painted with 1222 views of British landscapes and produced for Catherine the Great's summer palace in St. Petersburg.
- Reproduction, collection of paper tea plates inspired by eighteenth-century designs.
- Reproduction medallions obscured with designs from paper tea plates.
- A Taxonomy of Empire, Acrylic and emulsion on canvas.
- Man and Brother, 3-D prints of Henry Tate and Josiah Wedgwood. Henry Tate was just 14 years old when the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. He was a sugar merchant, philanthropist and was, like Wedgwood, concerned with the conditions of his workers. I am grateful to Tate and Lyle for providing the sugar cubes used in this project.
- Deconstructed, Limited edition digital prints (metadata from 3-D prints of anti-slavery medallions).
- The Golden Cube sugar, gold leaf and watercolour.
