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“Does not slavery itself depress the mind, and extinguish all its fire and every noble sentiment?”*
For some of those visiting ‘To Do Justly, To Love Mercy’, this may also be a first opportunity to see the garden behind Morley’s Nancy Seear Building. In this quiet setting they will be invited to contemplate the impact of the slave trade through the experiences of an individual, Olaudah Equiano, who succeeded in buying his way out of slavery, and then travelled the world as a trader before devoting himself to the abolitionist cause in late 18th-century London.
“Surely this traffic cannot be good, which spreads like a pestilence, and taints what it touches! Which violates that first natural right of mankind, equality and independency, and gives one man a dominion over his fellows which God could never intend!”*
Equiano’s autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789)*, became a best seller, and it is the text of this book that forms the inspiration for the works mounted on 8 trees in the Circular Green. Each piece takes as its starting point a chapter from the book: from Equiano’s experiences as a slave, to the winning of his freedom and his involvement in the abolitionist movement. The works also reflect the widely divergent interests (in relation to both subject and medium) of the participating artists: Sumi Perera, Jolanta Jagiello, Joseph Silcott, Kate Hammersley, Jill Rock, Christy Symington, Myree Tydings and Cheryl James. However, it will not surprise anyone to find that the trees have been variously wrapped, tied and bound whether it be in cloth, wood or metal: Jolanta Jagiello shackles Tree Two, Middle Passage to evoke Equiano’s experience ‘under the decks’ of a slave ship, where he “wished for the last friend, Death” to relieve him; and the theme of entrapment recurs in works linked with the later chapters of Equiano’s story when he lived as a free man, notably the ribbon binding Tree 8, Wealth and Marriage by Cheryl Jones.
In ‘To Do Justly, To Love Mercy’, the Morley Sculpture Society has put on a display that is both subtle and imaginative. For those who want to learn more, Penguin Classics have published Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings.
Reviewed by Dr Kathy McLauchlan
Participating artists:
Sumi Perera, Jolanta Jagiello, Joseph Silcott, Kate Hammersley, Jill Rock, Christy Symington, Myree Tydings and Cheryl James.
