Charmaine Watkiss
The Passengers, 2020
Pencil, graphite powder, coloured pencil and 22.9k gold on Canson paper
132 x 90 cm
52 x 35 3/8 in
52 x 35 3/8 in
CWA 005
Copyright The Artist
This work evolved out of my research around indigo and it’s production on the slave plantations in America and the Caribbean. This colour was once one of the worlds most...
This work evolved out of my research around indigo and it’s production on the slave plantations in America and the Caribbean. This colour was once one of the worlds most valued pigments, and at the height of it’s production more valuable than gold. This colour connects to great suffering and also to the deeply mystical. It is this dichotomy that I chose to explore with the work. Reading accounts of plantation life was challenging, I came to a point where it occurred to me that the majority of enslaved people who died were not afforded a proper memorial - so I felt that I needed to somehow address that with this work. But I also wanted to incorporate the sacred side of Indigo.
The way indigo is processed connects to alchemy. The dye is extracted from the leaves of the plant in two stages, the first involves extracting the dye itself which is insoluble, so needs to be made soluble within the dye bath. The second stage is making the soluble substance – which is colourless, turn blue, this is done through exposure to oxygen. No one knows how dyers from different continents around the globe discovered the process for creating a blue dye from this green plant. Evidence of this blue dye can be traced back to the Ghana Empire and the Tellem people who inhabited the cliffs in Mali around 11th century B.C., they wrapped the bodies of their dead in cloth dyed with Indigo, as did the ancient Egyptians.
So I constructed a narrative of two women holding a boat, one representing a contemporary woman, the other is her ancestral companion - who is the mediator between this world and the next. Her dress shows drawings of cosmograms and symbols inspired by ancient African Writing systems . She also wears various talismans and charms, one of which is the Adinkra symbol ‘WAWA ABA’ which means ‘seed of the wawa tree’ In Akan culture, the wawa tree is viewed as a symbol of someone who is strong and resilient, physically, or mentally. To the Akans, the tree serves as a reminder to persevere even in the most difficult of times. Inscribed inside the boat is the infinity symbol, which talks about the cycle of life / death / life - and refers to the infinite in the cosmos. There are also the 4 directions inscribed in the boat - Earth / Air / Fire and Water. The blue which lines the boat is hand made watercolour, I used pure indigo pigment and mixed it with carbon, because this element constitutes 18% of the human body.
This work for me speaks about ancient burial rites connected to African and Caribbean culture, but also speaks about Atlantic crossings, many of which are still being made today with tragic consequences.
The way indigo is processed connects to alchemy. The dye is extracted from the leaves of the plant in two stages, the first involves extracting the dye itself which is insoluble, so needs to be made soluble within the dye bath. The second stage is making the soluble substance – which is colourless, turn blue, this is done through exposure to oxygen. No one knows how dyers from different continents around the globe discovered the process for creating a blue dye from this green plant. Evidence of this blue dye can be traced back to the Ghana Empire and the Tellem people who inhabited the cliffs in Mali around 11th century B.C., they wrapped the bodies of their dead in cloth dyed with Indigo, as did the ancient Egyptians.
So I constructed a narrative of two women holding a boat, one representing a contemporary woman, the other is her ancestral companion - who is the mediator between this world and the next. Her dress shows drawings of cosmograms and symbols inspired by ancient African Writing systems . She also wears various talismans and charms, one of which is the Adinkra symbol ‘WAWA ABA’ which means ‘seed of the wawa tree’ In Akan culture, the wawa tree is viewed as a symbol of someone who is strong and resilient, physically, or mentally. To the Akans, the tree serves as a reminder to persevere even in the most difficult of times. Inscribed inside the boat is the infinity symbol, which talks about the cycle of life / death / life - and refers to the infinite in the cosmos. There are also the 4 directions inscribed in the boat - Earth / Air / Fire and Water. The blue which lines the boat is hand made watercolour, I used pure indigo pigment and mixed it with carbon, because this element constitutes 18% of the human body.
This work for me speaks about ancient burial rites connected to African and Caribbean culture, but also speaks about Atlantic crossings, many of which are still being made today with tragic consequences.