Man and Brother
"Am I not a Man and a Brother" was the eighteenth-century slogan used on an oval jasperware medallion produced by potter and social reformer Josiah Wedgwood. The plaque depicts a black enslaved man , his hands clasped with his wrists chained to his legs in an act of supplication. The image and slogan, which appealed to the white European view of converting the enslaved to Christianity, were replicated across a variety of artefacts to promote the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade.
This body of work represents the financial importance of sugar to the rise of the British Empire and that while reformers such as Wedgwood campaigned for the abolition of slavery, they remained inextricably tied to the wealth generated by the exploitative labour of the enslaved in the British colonies; in the case of Wedgwood, through the sale of china tea sets.
I am grateful to Tate and Lyle who supplied the sugar cubes used in this project.
- 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, showing a pixilated representation of a design typical of those used on an eighteenth-century tea service.
- British Landscapes In 1774 Wedgwood completed a dinner service for Catherine the Great's summer palace in St. Petersburg. Known as the "Frog Service", each object was painted with a different view of the British landscape; in total 1222 views. These paper plates depict 'alternate views' to those produced by Wedgwood, images of sugar plantations where the enslaved worked producing the sugar required for the tea and desserts consumed at the white European table.
- Reproduction A collection of paper plates inspired by eighteenth-century designs.
- Reproduction medallions, in which the figure of the enslaved man is 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.
- Deconstructed Limited edition digital prints (metadata from 3-D prints of anti-slavery medallions).
- The Golden Cube Painted sugar cubes and gold leaf.
