Fracture is the break between
A line on the surface of something
Split without breaking apart.
It is not the telling that reduces us, it’s the absence.
The memories of Thomas Blake plague our present.
In this house the cracks built
Dig Where You Stand has been 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 make visible the unknown Black Georgian community of Rotherham. We also reveal some of the earliest recorded African-descended people in South Yorkshire. This is change work.
The exhibition launch will take place on the 31st October at Wentworth Woodhouse, with live performances and discussion. There will also be a public lecture on the 7th November to delve further into the stories on display
In partnership with Sheffield City Archives & Wentworth Woodhouse. Lead artist Désirée Reynolds. Design by Peter & Paul.