In 2024 Dig Where You Stand was commissioned to explore the overlooked Black lives that have passed through and become the cracks of this grand stately home. Their names are Thomas Blake, George Senegal, Henry Fryday, and Romulus and Remus. By archiving Blackness through art we insist the Black being into the fabric of this house.
Through the exhibition we made visible the unknown Black Georgian community of Rotherham. We also revealed some of the earliest recorded African-descended people in South Yorkshire. This is change work.
The exhibition launch took place on the 31st October at Wentworth Woodhouse, with live performances and discussion. There was also a public lecture on the 7th November which delved further into the stories on display.
As part of this work, lead artist Désirée Reynolds was commissioned to write a poem. Read her completed work, 'Fractured' (2024), below.
Fractured
Fractured is the crack between
a line
on the surface
split without breaking
it is not the telling that reduces us, it’s the absence
a return
Thomas Blake
in the house the cracks built
a dub version.
a remix that places the bass and the treble, the drum and blow in exactly the place the teller wants it.
I the untold
giving room to breathe and be
live the stories twisted, the dance that is needed, to come from the shadows.
I speak with the voice of men
the black that attended to the whiteness
where’s the fracture?
Thomas Blake, George Senegal, Henry Fryday, Thomas Spriggs.
split without breaking
the Black the house consumed without much passion for it
ingesting
‘Mr Wentworths Black’
stiff and upstanding with cloth and britches and muslin
“9 yards of cloth for Black Tom”.
are you proud or does a distant smell or sound or a taste haunt your tongue?
is home on your mind when you put on the shirts?
is the sound of the shoes on the floor the sound of your feet wanting to go in another direction?
Thomas?
tap once for …..
no, lets not make you perform the performance again
George Senegal after the country
did they meet Thomas on a Friday?
had they a dog or a horse called Henry?
you don’t need your name, you can have mine, Thomas.
they dressed them
but what does that matter if you can get a cream tea, jam for that scone
butter for the cracks
must ornaments be grateful?
we can spot them in purples and blues, velvets and silks, in feathers and shells and beads in turbans their small heads weren’t meant for
hiding behind these pillars
watching their familiars, as we will, another black performance
Henry Fryday was here for 5 years
from school to house
he didn't get a chance to wear the 5 shirts made for him.
did George visit him when he was sick?
did George go to his funeral?
and home is not a part of your death
the cracks are
George Senegal worked here for 15 years.
the archive speaks
I am the voice of men
did George sweep away the camellia leaves from his coat?
or crunch them under his feet with the shoes that will one day belong to Romulus or Remus
the boys that were ‘gifted’
the life cycle of a pair of shoes
the clouds give the dark back
too bright the feet as they stare at the shine, what’s reflected in unspoken tongue
housed in granite and longing this is my praise song.
they dressed them
in expectation and beauty
Speak community.
This exhibition was a partnership between Dig Where You Stand, Sheffield City Archives and Wentworth Woodhouse. Lead artist Désirée Reynolds and design by Peter & Paul.