Stitching Souls: Threads of Silence

Stitching Souls: Threads of Silence is an exhibition currently on show at the Walker Gallery, Liverpool. Created by the artist Karen McLean, it focuses on the juxtaposition of the grand portraits of Liverpool aristocratic merchants from the gallery’s collection, and the silenced history of slavery and colonialism.

The Zong Massacre of 1781 was a key moment in the history of the abolition of slavery and is closely connected to some Liverpool merchants. Whilst en route from Africa to Jamaica with a cargo of slaves, a navigational error took the ship off course resulting in a longer journey and a shortage of water. In order to save the crew, the captain ordered that some 133 people be thrown overboard. Later the owners claimed insurance for the loss of cargo. Stitching Souls honours and memorialises the 133 Africans killed on that day.

The installation comprises 132 quilted heads crafted so as to represent the different African tribes and ethnicities enslaved and transported across the Atlantic. The heads were first wrapped in cotton wadding mimicking the process of mumification, then stitched with cotton African textiles. In choosing cotton the artist deliberately connects the cotton trade to its production in the Caribbean and American South by enslaved labour, intertwining the history of labour, exploitation and the profit accrued by the merchants of Liverpool.