Stitched in Silence: The Art of Resistance
Cheryl McIntosh, Pia Wiegmink & Beatrix Hoffmann-Ihde
BCDSS Independent Collaborator (Artist), BCDSS Cluster Professor & BCDSS Exhibition Curator
Pia Wiegmink and Beatrix Hoffmann-Ihde talkto Cheryl McIntoshabout her artwork. Cheryl McIntoshis an artist with Jamaican roots and has lived in Bonn for many years. With her art works made of fabric and mixed media, she deals with the history and the long-term consequences of the enslavement of people from Africa and their deportation, which continue to the present day. With her work, she wants to draw attention to this history and initiate a healing process.
The Enslaved Boy in Modern Osnaburg
Osnaburg or Osnaburgh – a garment for the enslaved – was originally produced in Osnabrück, Germany. It was traditionally woven from flaxen in the 17th century. It was chosen as the clothing for enslaved peoples in the Americas and the Caribbean, due to its coarse and dense weave and its durability. A former enslaved person himself, Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) said that Osnaburg felt like a hundred pinpoints in contact with the flesh’ (fig. 1).
Fig. 1a + b: „The Enslaved Boy“, Cheryl McIntosh, mixed media: fabric, iron nails and paper (2024), (photo: B. Frommann, 2024).
Madeleine
The work “Madeleine” by Cheryl McIntosh refers to a painting by Marie Guillemine Benoist (1768-1826). After her return from the Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe, where Benoist had fled to her husband’s family before the French Revolution, she showed the painting at the Paris Salon in 1800. The portrait of the formerly enslaved Madeleine, who gained freedom through the abolition of slavery and worked as a servant for Benoist’s family-in-law, is considered the painter’s most important work.
The title of Benoist’s painting was originally “Portrait d’une négresse“ and in the years following its creation it was considered a symbol of female emancipation and the fight for human rights. However, from today’s perspective, the traces of the colonial position of power from which Benoist created her work cannot be overlooked or ignored. Following on from this, Cheryl McIntosh, with her work of the same name and a new interpretation of the woman portrayed, seeks to heal the pain that is passed on from one generation to the next, whose ancestors were abducted into slavery. Precious fabrics emphasize Madeleine’s dignity and cover her nudity, which in Benoist’s painting still brings her into close connection with her biography as an enslaved woman (fig. 2).
Fig. 2: „Madeleine“, Cheryl McIntosh, Textile Collage (2022), (photo: C. McIntosh, 2022).
The Taming of the Negro, Part 2
The artwork is inspired from “Étude d’aprés le modèle Joseph”, by Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856). Joseph born into slavery in Saint Domingue, now Haiti 1793, arrived in France where he worked as an actor/acrobat to play “African”, and thereafter became a much sought-after renowned model in Paris appearing in several fine art paintings. The title refers to the use and role of religion in colonization and the enslavement of people. (Part 2, follows from an artwork entitled “The Taming of the Negro”, where Jesus ist baptizing Joseph). The first sketch was done by artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1836 entitled “Satan” for the exhibition „Le Seigneur chassant le démon du haut de la montagne…“
The artist, McIntosh, has presented Joseph as a named, free, celebrated, gifted black person being resurrected towards heaven with the roses symbolizing the beauty of the person (and the pain unseen thorns). His throwing of the roses alludes to freedom of references to satan and the demon, racial discrimination, pain, and suffering…
The lace fabric used to portray Joseph’s body is a symbol of beauty, fragility, and value. The blue floral background reinforces the delicacy and beauty of the human person Joseph (fig. 3).
Fig. 3: „The TamingoftheNegro, Part II“, Cheryl McIntosh, Textile Collage (2023), (photo: C. McIntosh).
Further Reading
Debrey, Cécile et al. (ed.), 2019. Le modèle noir: De Géricault à Matisse. Coédition Flammarion. Musée D’Orsay.
McIntosh, Cheryl, 2024. Counter Thoughts. Counter Images. Eine Ausstellung des Projekts „Aktive Erinnerungskultur“, Bundesstadt Bonn, Kulturamt. Bonn.