Keeper of All The Secrets (Tea Service)
edition of 3
2023
digital print on commercial porcelain
various dimensions
KEEPER OF ALL THE SECRETS (TEA SERVICE)
Limited Edition Set | Edition of 3
KEEPER OF ALL THE SECRETS (DINNER PLATES)
KEEPER OF ALL THE SECRETS (TEXTILE)
ABOUT
More on Jacqueline Bishop HERE
Because of her knowledge of the properties of the plants and flowers on the island(s) of the Caribbean and her ability to move about the island going to and from market, among the duties the market woman had to take on was the ability to regulate womenâs menstrual cycles. Consequently, if a woman missed her cycle and feared that she had an unwanted pregnancy, she would seek out a market woman to purchase the necessary plants to bring on a reluctant period. But the market woman had to be secretive in what she was doing for during the period of slavery, the children that enslaved women had in their very bodies did not belong to them. Rather they belonged to the people who owned them, and it was punishable by death for enslaved women to seek to destroy their ownerâs property i.e., unborn slave children. Abortion remains contested to this day as the recent Supreme Court ruling in the United States demonstrates and even on the island of Jamaica abortion remains illegal. Consequently, trafficking in plants that could aid in abortion was illegal for both the market woman and the woman seeking to end an unwanted pregnancy. In this way the market woman became the âThe Keeper of All the Secretsâ: She had to be secretive enough to protect herself as well as the girls and women she was helping.
What I have done in this body of work is trace this history of the market womanâs use of abortifacients from the period of slavery until today in a tea set. If a viewer looks closely at the imagery on the tea set, they will see that I have placed my work in conversation with the earliest paintings that were done of Jamaica which shows the market woman as a figure with a basket on her head, or on the dusty streets of Kingston, her child at her side, sitting and selling. One of the most meaningful images for me is a meeting between a market woman and an indigenous woman demonstrating an exchange of botanical and other information and knowledge between both women. Not only is that image recreated on one of the largest pieces in the tea set, but I have had the piece created on West Indian Sea Island Cotton, one of the most refined cottons in the world to reinforce the themes of the work. The indigenous Taino of the island of Jamaica were master cotton weavers, a skill passed on to the enslaved; as well the cotton flower was an important abortifacient, and this is perhaps knowledge passed on by indigenous women to enslaved women. Intertwined on the tea set with the market women are various abortifacient plants along with sugar used to make the drink that would engender the abortions, but sugar also being an integral part of the history of enslavement. All of this is showcased in a tea set outlined in gold making the point that enslavement, colonialism, slavery gave rise to luxury commodities enjoyed and enjoined in Europe as is this porcelain tea set.
-Jacqueline Bishop
NEWS
Portraits in porcelain preserving secrets and pouring history in London
by  on Apr 18, 2025
“Jamaican-born artist Jacqueline Bishopâs âThe keeper of all the secretsâ is a charming 13-piece ceramic tea service crafted from bone China. Bishop collaborated with Stoke-on-Trent-based ceramist Emma Price to bring this intricate work to life. This tea set reimagines a traditional British tea set, intertwining it with collages of Caribbean market women and botanicals to explore themes of womenâs agency and the legacies of empire and enslavement. What one sees inside the glass case isnât just a tea set but vessels of grief, resistance, and unspoken strength. The set is a whisper turned into porcelain.”
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International artistâs work on show as city marks abolition of the slave trade | The Sentinel, 2024
âA MAJOR event to remember the slave trade and its abolition is taking place in Stoke-on-trent for the first time. The International Day for The Remembrance of The Slave Trade and Its Abolition is part of a national programme called Time, Space and Empire. Port cities such as Bristol, Liverpool and London have been commemorating that period in Britainâs history for 25 years. Now the event will launch in Stoke-on-trent with the unveiling of a new ceramic artwork, The Keeper of All The Secrets, by multimedia artist Jacqueline Bishop, at the V&A Wedgwood Collection at the World of Wedgwood in Barlaston on Saturdayâ
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Politics on a plate: how ceramics became a tool for satire and protest | Financial Times, 2024
A new exhibition celebrates the âTrojan horseâ of the decorative arts
In Bishopâs 2023 series of cups and saucers called âKeeper of All the Secretsâ â on view at Ferrin Contemporaryâs exhibition, Our America/Whose America? at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia â she focuses on the market womanâs ability to use local plants to regulate womenâs menstrual cycles and bring on miscarriages for those with unwanted pregnancies.
âThe market woman had to be secretive in what she was doing during the period of slavery, when children that enslaved women had in their very bodies did not belong to them,â she says. With abortion still officially illegal in Jamaica and womenâs rights to it being stripped from the US constitution, her story is all the more pertinent.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
RECENTLY ON VIEW
Jacqueline Bishop’s “The Keeper of All The Secrets” on view at the Queen’s House, Royal Museums Greenwich, 2025
JACQUELINE BISHOP: The Keeper of All The Secrets
2025 | The Queens House, Royal Museums Greenwich | London, UK
on view permanently starting March 20, 2025
Jacqueline Bishop, “The Keeper of All the Secrets”, on view at the V&A, England
JACQUELINE BISHOP: The Keeper of All The Secrets
2024 | Exhibition organized by Culture& X V&A Wedgewood Collection | Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
August 23, 2024 â November 3, 2024
Jacqueline Bishop in “Our America/Whose America?” Parlor Room Installation at the Wickham House, Richmond, VA, 2024
OUR AMERICA/WHOSE AMERICA?
2024 | Group Exhibition in the Wickham House at the Valentine Museum | Richmond, VA
February 20, 2024 â April 21, 2024
Our America/Whose America? Is a âcall and responseâ exhibition between contemporary artists and historic ceramic objects.