Black 'Mammy' Wine Rack

TBAFB0018

Black 'Mammy' Wine Rack

Decorative wooden leaning wine rack depicting a black woman, styled to mimic the black 'Mammy' caricature. The wooden wine rack has a large hole where the woman's mouth is present as a means for fixing the wine bottle in place - with the legs and feet of the wine rack being used to counter-balance the weight of the wine bottle. The woman painted features: a yellow undershirt with red, white, and blue spots; a red bandana with yellow and green spots; blue overalls; and black laced shoes. The figure carries a brown/orange wicker basket containing a selection of fruit. The figure stands in front of what looks to be a sugarcane plant which is painted on the back of the wine rack, this can be also be seen from the front side - appearing as a background for the black caricatured figure. The shape of the sugarcane leaves dominate the shape of the upper part of the wine rack, providing an outline for the woman's head. This choice to include a sugarcane plant is likely a reference to the histry of Haiti (where the wine rack originates) and its past history as a sugar colony with numerous plantations. On the bottom of the figures feet are written the year of production ("2013") and a label stating ("MADE IN HAITI").

Wooden Wine Rack

Facing Blackness is a multimedia exhibition that takes the public through the obscure history of portraying Black people from the colonial period to contemporary society. Using unique archive material and visual art, we show how anti-black racism became part of the Dutch 'cultural archive' and our everyday ideas, customs and utensils. On the other hand, the exhibition shows how there has always been 'everyday resistance' to various forms of racism and how Black people themselves have given and continue to give meaning to their culture and identity.

The Black Archives

Wine Rack

Black Woman, Black Caricature, Mammy,

Sugarcane, Fruit, Pineapples, Apples, Oranges, Wicker Basket, Bandana, Overalls, Shirt, Shoes,

c.2013

10x26x2

Haiti

Caricature, Plantation, Black Woman, Black Mammy, Wine, Slavery, Haiti, Colonialism

Richard Weaver

https://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/mammies/ ; http://www.mappinghaitianhistory.com/plantations-and-sugar-mills