History at the Dinner Table
2021
digital print on commercial porcelain
11″ diameter each
HISTORY AT THE DINNER TABLE
Limited Edition Set
RECENTLY ON VIEW
Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance
At the Fitzwilliam Museum | Cambridge, UK | September 8 – January 7, 2024
ABOUT History at the Dinner Table
This work was produced with help by Emma Price, a potter based in the UK. Jacqueline Bishop begins the process by designing collages of images she sources of the Market Women. From these collages, decals are produced, and Jacqueline decides which porcelain objects on which to apply the decals. Emma then brings these two ideas together by firing the decals onto the porcelain in a kiln.
“We test various colors and whether they work with the decals on the porcelain before we finally settle on something. It is all quite involved. Emma and I have been working together for quite some time now so we have a bit of a routine.”
STATEMENT
As a little girl growing up on the island of Jamaica, Jacqueline Bishop’s grandmother had a large mahogany cabinet where she kept some of her most prized possessions: her bone china crockery. These delicate pieces were painted with bright, cheerful images of palaces and carriages and were only used on special occasions.
As beautiful as these china dishes were, they often hid a violent history of slavery and colonialism by European countries. In ‘History at the Dinner Table’, Jacqueline changes the story by showing the legacy of slavery on the dishes instead. Despite their violent history, Bishop is also seduced and charmed by the delicacy and beauty of bone chinaware and she has sought to produce dishes equally as beautiful as the ones made by major European centers of bone china production. The work is often exhibited in mahogany cabinets as mahogany was once a major luxury import from Jamaica to England.
NEWS
The Fitzwilliam Museum Brings Together Global Stories and Histories of Exploitation, Resilience and Liberation
September 2, 2023 | Published by Widewalls
Titled Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance, the exhibition will feature global stories and histories of exploitation, resilience, and liberation. It will include historical, modern, and contemporary pieces by Black artists, among whom are Donald Locke, Barbara Walker, Keith Piper, Alberta Whittle, and Jacqueline Bishop. Geographically, it will span West Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and Europe.
Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance
August 31, 2023 | Published by Apollo
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge brings together artworks and objects from the Caribbean, West Africa, South America and Europe to ask questions about its own involvement with the transatlantic slave trade – and, in doing so, to interrogate wider histories of human exploitation (8 September–7 January 2024). The exhibition opens with a critical look at Richard Fitzwilliam, after whom the museum is named.
Free Thinking: Black Atlantic
September 19th, 2023 | BBC Sounds
In 1816, Richard Fitzwilliam donated money, literature and art to the University of Cambridge, and the museum which bears his name began. A research project led by New Generation Thinker Jake Subryan Richards has been exploring Cambridge’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and he has curated an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam. Artist and writer Jacqueline Bishop who features in this show, joins Jake and April-Louise Pennant, who has been researching the history of Penrhyn Castle in Wales. Plus, Sherry Davis discusses the rediscovery of Black professionals in East African archaeology.
Producer: Ruth Watts