The troubling legacy of empire is being explored by new exhibitions at British art institutions.
In April 1819 a French slave ship called"Le Rodeur" departed West Africa for the Caribbean. On board were 22 crew, and around 160 enslaved Africans. In the cramped conditions aboard the ship, a debilitating disease broke out, rendering all the slaves and many of the crew blind. The French captain, calculating that his human cargo was worth more as an insurance payout, ordered weights to be attached to the feet of 36 enslaved Africans, who were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean.
"I guess the most important thing in this painting is that nobody knows what's happening," said Himid, looking at her works, which give off an air of uncertainty."These people come from all sorts of different eras, but they're feeling the vibrations of that trauma," she explained."Those reverberations are still shaking us up in the room now, today.
While drawing on deep and painful themes, Himid's work, as in"Le Rodeur," is often understated in its subversion. Next to a giant sculpture of planks resembling a wave, with a recording of the sounds of the sea filling the air, is one of the paintings from her"Revenge" series from the 1990s. Azures of the sea and colorful shades from the dresses of the two women sat in a small boat pop from the canvas. This is"Between the Two My Heart is Balanced.".
Memories of a painful past echoed in the exhibition's first room, which featured a collection of paintings and drawings by Bill Traylor. Born in the 1850s, Traylor was among the last generations of enslaved African Americans, and taught himself to paint and draw after gaining his freedom."I wanted to have his work as the kind of starting point and the inspiration for the entire project ... [he] was a self-taught artist, and he depicted his own community," explained Shonibare.
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