For more than a century, Thomas Picton’s portrait hung in a prominent position in Cardiff’s National Museum, the depiction of the image hailing him as a military hero rather than a tyrant and torturer, before it was removed from view. in the wake of the Black Lives Matter Protest.
From Monday, the two-metre-tall portrait of General Picton will be displayed again in the Welsh capital – but in a very different context.
After months of painstaking consultation and debate, the portrait hangs not in the Faces of Wales museum’s grand gallery, but in a modest side room, and is housed in a specially constructed softwood and plywood travel box, with a slipcover. the swollen hip area of the figure.
It is surrounded by vivid descriptions of Picton’s brutal treatment of the people of Trinidad when he was governor in the late 19th century, including the torture of Luisa Calderón, a 14-year-old girl of mixed heritage.
To get to the portrait, the visitor passes through two other rooms filled with a pair of thoughtful works, specially commissioned by artists who are from Trinidad or have strong ties to the island, as part of an exhibition called Reframing Picton.
Dr Kath Davies, director of collections and research at Amgueddfa Cymru – the National Museum of Wales – said she felt the packaging symbolized the notion that the Picton portrait did not necessarily and automatically have a permanent home in the museum. “I think it shows that nothing is fixed, it’s a dynamic process,” she said. “Conversations will continue to evolve as we move forward.”
Davies was also pleased that the tape hid what she called Picton’s “fringes and testosterone”.
The saga over the portrait of Picton, who was originally from Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales and was the highest-ranking British officer killed at the Battle of Waterloo, parallels that of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston, which was toppled. and were cast into Bristol harbour.
Bristol City Council set up a commission that decided the statue should be displayed in a city museum – horizontally and still painted – and its former plinth was filled with temporary artwork, but is sometimes left empty.
In Cardiff, the national museum worked with new members of the Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel (SSAP), which was set up to represent African diaspora groups in Wales, and Amgueddfa Cymru Producers, young people from across Wales.
Fadhili Maghiya, chief executive of SSAP, said it was important that Picton was not hidden but present in order to talk about history. “It feels crucial,” he said. “There may be misunderstandings that we are looking to rewrite history with this project. However, this is far from the truth. Reframing Picton aims to rewrite our future by challenging the way we engage with history.”
The first room the visitor enters is full of splendor – and horror. It’s an immersive work called Spirited, created by Denial behavior (Black Yard in Haitian Kwéyòl), a group of four UK artists, three of whom are of Trinidadian origin. The visitor makes their way through bamboo frames decorated with twisted paper to learn – and feel – the story of Louise and two other girls, Thisbe and Present, who were victims of Picton’s brutal regime.
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It doesn’t take away from the gruesome manner in which Louise, after being accused of theft, was tortured, hanging from a gallows by her wrist for almost an hour, bearing all her weight on an upturned wooden stake.
Among the many striking elements is a cabinet full of objects from the museum’s collection that tell stories of slavery, repression and colonization, from sugar cutters to a case of hummingbirds collected from Trinidad.
In the second room, The Wound is a Portal is the creation of Gesiye, a multidisciplinary artist of Nigerian heritage from Trinidad and Tobago whose response to the Picton portrait includes tattooing, performance, drawing, film and documentary work.
In addition to launching the Reframing Picton exhibition, the museum is embarking on a 10-year project to “decolonize” its entire collection by re-examining every item, from stuffed animals to many photographs.
When the Picton exhibition ends in a year, the two newly commissioned pieces will be part of Wales’ national collection – but what happens next to the Picton portrait is still up for debate.
Meanwhile, in the place where the portrait once hung is a picture of a more down-to-earth and less controversial Welsh figure, the defender and canalist William Lloyd, by Albert Houthuesen.
