“At first I was angry and then I just felt pity – they didn’t stand a chance,” artist and musician Danni Skerritt, otherwise known as Dirty Freud, said.
He is discussing his reaction to letters in The Bodleian which helped inspire new exhibition THESE THINGS MATTER: Empire, Exploration and Everyday Racism, now showing at The Weston Library.
Written by Europeans about their reactions to seeing black Africans for the first time, Dannie says: “The language in the letters was really emotive, saying that black people were beasts, devils and freaks and had black blood. It was crazy how normalised it was.”
Danni, and his brother Chris, were two of the eight artists chosen to take part in the exhibition to expose the inherent and self perpetuating racism within the British Empire, seen through artefacts in The Bodleian.
“OUR MESSAGE IS THAT WE NEED TO GROW FROM THESE MISTAKES AND CREATE A NEW LEGACY'”
Bunmi Ogunsiji, Grace Lee, Amina Atiq, Nilupa Yasmin, Mahdy Abo Bahat and Johannah Latchem also feature in THESE THINGS MATTER, having being assigned different Bodleian artefacts connecting the British Empire with the Slave Trade.
“Each artist looked at these artefacts through a 21st century lens, offering a raw – and at times – brutal, personal response to it, conveying how it made them feel, and how they see its intended purpose and human impact,” Rachel Smith from The Bodleian explained.
Danni and Chris’ resulting work speaks volumes. Part spoken word, part photography, part music, the brothers knew what message they wanted to portray.
“Our first spoken word piece is full of anger and rage, while the last one is hopeful. Being angry is easy but there needs to be some positivity in terms of how far we have come since then,” he adds, “so the words, music and photographs loop continually together in the exhibition.”
Being angry is easy but there needs to be some positivity in terms of how far we have come since then
So how did THESE THINGS MATTER come about? Working collectively with the Museum of Colour and Fusion Arts, the curator and founder of the Museum of Colour, Samenua Sesher, personally selected the artefacts held in the Bodleian’s private collections where maps, letters and even The Bible were edited deliberately to manipulate millions of people, and to justify the value of trading African bodies.
So what is Danni and Chris’ art telling us? “That we need to grow from these mistakes and create a new legacy, he says.
“My parents were part of the Windrush generation, my dad came here aged five from the Caribbean, so we spoke to our family to get a better idea of their experiences before beginning this project.
I love that our country is now a melting point of different histories, cultures and words, so ‘THESE THINGS MATTER’ was something I really needed to do
“It wasn’t all rose tinted glasses for my grandparents of course but they are now in the position where their grandchildren can be whatever we choose, and that is really liberating,” Danni says.
“I love that our country is now a melting point of different histories, cultures and words, so THESE THINGS MATTER was something I really needed to do.”
“But what we also need to remember is that while slavery has been going on for centuries, it hasn’t ended yet. We still have a long way to go.”
THESE THINGS MATTER: Empire, Exploration and Everyday Racism is at The Weston Library until February 19 and at museumofcolour.org.uk.
