‘Recontextualised’ portrait of slave owner back on display

A portrait of slave owner Sir Thomas Picton has gone back on display at the National Museum of Cardiff alongside newly commissioned artworks and information that “reframes” his place in history.

The portrait is one of 209 memorials to people with links to slavery identified in Wales after a 2020 audit. It was removed last November.

The new exhibit, which sees the portrait displayed in a large wooden box with one side missing, was organised after consultation with the Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel (SSAP), which was invited to decide the future of the artwork.

The panel deemed that the work should be displayed alongside information about Picton’s actions as a slave owner in Trinidad, which included the torture of Luisa Calderon, a 14-year-old-girl, the torture of a second slave named Thisbe and the murder and posthumous dismemberment of a slave named Present.

The museum commissioned Trinidadian artists Gesiye and Miguela Gonzalez to create new artworks that reframe Picton’s legacy and give a voice to his victims.

Gesiye, who is from Trinidad and Tobago and has Nigerian heritage, created a short film and eight photographic portraits of Trinidadians baring tattoos. She found people willing to be tattoed for the project by advertising in newspapers and putting up flyers on the streets on Bristol.

“I'm using tattooing to kind of bring people together to share this connected story, but also to create a space where we feel safe to have these conversations about things that are usually quite painful and that we might otherwise avoid talking about,” she told the BBC.

Gonzalez created a large installation inspired by the Ol’ Mas traditions of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. It is an ancestral work that honours African traditions. 

“This is not a response to Picton himself, this is our understanding of our history and this is us filling in the gaps of a story,” she told the BBC.

The museum’s curator Dr Kath Davies said that “there are no neat narratives”. 

“I think what you'll see here today is an exhibition which tries to cover all the aspects of Picton's life and Picton's activity, and I think it'll be up to the audience to make their minds up,” she told the BBC.