The warrior builds strength: from all who came before.

London: 2023.

1 drawing : coffee, water-soluble graphite, pencil, watercolour, and ink on paper, 55 x 77 cm

Charmaine Watkiss 2023 (signed in pencil)

This is the Shea Butter plant warrior (Vitellaria paradoxa / Butyrospermum parkii). I was inspired to make this work after having read that the captured and enslaved were prepared for market by having their bodies rubbed with shea butter to prepare them for sale (castor oil was also used for this purpose). This work speaks about transatlantic crossings - the map on her dress is a map of the global triangular trade. Overlaid on top of that is a repeating pattern of the Adinkra symbol ‘Aya’ which is the fern, a symbol of endurance and resourcefulness. Many symbols I use are found on the site of the African Burial Ground monument in New York. The dress and the inside of the boat are both rendered with Indigo Blue - which for me represents the sacred, and is often usd in my work to indicate a connection with the sacred. Shea butter was also used on the African Continent in a medicinal context. The fruit itself is used for food and has many nutritional benefits; those captured and enslaved would have carried this knowledge with them. This plant was used in a similar way to the Castor plant, particularly in terms of the oil it produced. Hair is very much an important aspect of my work - because hair, and styling hair is a big part of black women’s culture throughout the diaspora. Caring for and styling our hair is a form of ritual, so many of my hairstyles reference ancient African hairstyles - which look very modern, and some look futuristic. My warriors inhabit the space between the contemporary and the future because the knowledge they carry needs to live on into the future. They are like messengers, reminding us of a collective past but also carrying hope for the future. To care for the natural world is to also care for ourselves - without nature we won’t survive.-- Charmaine Watkiss

Title provided by the artist.

Wellcome Collection 3358540i

Charmaine Watkiss, 2023. ©Charmaine Watkiss. All rights reserved, DACS 2024

Exhibited in 'Hard Graft' at Wellcome Collection, London, 18 September 2024 - 27 April 2025.