CASTA

The portrait of Jacqui Sealy and the group portrait of the Austin Family are part of a series of works responding to the Casta paintings in Leicester Museum.

The Casta paintings are an early example of ‘Othering’ and the ‘pseudoscientific’ racism that has informed so much of our thinking in the Global North since the 1600s.

In a Capitalist system the creation of the ‘other’, the group that is not like us, inferior to us, ‘worth less than us’ is a key tool in maintaining and justifying exploitation.

The portraits stand in opposition to the misinformation about our connection to each other; they celebrate the ways in which we are the same.

Each person holds an item that is precious and important to them; a favourite thing, unique to them and yet universally understood.