This work was created on the last anniversary of the Windrush. I wanted to mark the anniversary but could not find an open call or funding to do so. I created a GIF that was able to circulate internationally among the West-Indian diaspora independent of galleries and arts institutions.
This piece was extensively researched and key figures that were here before the Windrush in some cases centuries before were placed on the deck of the ship. When the GIFF is activated the ship rocks gently in the tide but the figures remain stationary. This is to call attention to the fact that they were already here and on those solid shores.
The history of coming and leaving Britain is picked up on with the red cross of the crusades which could also be read as the International Medical assistance of the red cross. The comings and goings of this particular vessel which has a Natzi past which once gave the ship the moto "Strength through joy". The Windrush generation is absented on this ship which is often shorthand for them. Instead the ship is loaded with webs of meanings that predate the Windrush generation and so provide a global international context for them. This context makes the Windrush generation all the more extraordinary.
"Onboard" the Windrush are:
From left to right:
JOHN BLANKE TRUMPETER
A trumpeter depicted on the 60ft-long Westminster Tournament Roll. John Blanke
FERDINAND SMITH
A radical black Jamaican-born seaman who used ports and sailing voyages as a means to spread the word about workers' rights and Socialist propaganda, crisscrossing the seas with his political agitation.
AMY ASHWOOD GARVEY
A radical pan African feminist who was a relentless political activist across the Caribbean, and Central Americas to the United States Europe and Africa. She was politically active in England as early as 1924.
PETER JACKSON INTERNATIONAL BOXER
Peter Jackson, 2 December 1889. Born in 1860 in St Croix, then the Danish West Indies, Jackson was a boxing champion who spent long periods of time touring Europe. In England, he staged the famous fight against Jem Smith at the Pelican Club in 1889. In 1888 he claimed the title of Australian heavyweight champion.
PABLO FANQUE
Pablo Fanque, celebrated circus owner and performer in Victorian Britain
SEPTIMUS SEVERS WITH WIFE AND CHILD
Septimius Severus was the first black citizen to hold Rome’s highest office. For the final three years of his reign, he made York his home and brought to the city a cosmopolitan period of culture, fashion and importance that has not been matched since.
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/exhibitions/8826893.New_exhibition_about_Roman_Emperor_Septimius_Severus_at_the_Yorkshire_Museum/
OLADAH EQUIANO
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/europe/black_people.aspx
Engraving of abolition campaigner Olaudah Equiano from the 1793 edition of his autobiography (originally published in Maritime archives and library reference 512.EQU/R
BERENGARIA OF NAVARRE
Berengaria of Navarre 1165 -1230 Queen of England as the wife of Richard the I Berengaria of Navarre 1165-1230 elders daughter of Sancho VI of Navarre and such of Castile.
A BLACK KNIGHT
carved in St Mary’s church Uffculme, Devon founded before 1136.
SARAH FORBES BONITA DAVIES AND JAMES PINSON LABULO DAVIES
Photographed in Victorian times, she was given the name of her captor/rescuer and his ship. She became Queen Victoria’s “Goddaughter.” She married the wealthy Nigerian British businessman James Pinson Labulo Davies.
ELANOR XINIWE
Eleanor Xiniwe of the African Choir, photographed in the UK in 1891.
UNKNOWN BLACK COACH BOY
Erddig (c) National Trust dated at between 1770 and 1799
