Mignonette Bridal

Terre de Nos Aieux  - Imagining a Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood

About the Project

Terre de Nos Aieux (“Land of Our Ancestors” and the national anthem of Togo), is a multi-part project investigating notions of Black femininity, women’s contributions to art, and beauty through imagined dialogues between female artists, some Black, some White, whose work has been forgotten and overlooked, but which continues to be a source of personal inspiration.

The first part of this work was a trip to Iceland in 2018 with an all-Black, all-female group of American and British artists to photograph an imaginary dialogue between Black British Pre -Raphaelite artist’s model Fanny Eaton, “land girl” Mary Lobb, and May Morris, daughter of William and head of Morris and Co.’s embroidery department. These women intrigue me especially because May has recently been credited with designing some of her father William’s most popular works, while Eaton, a popular Pre-Raphaelite subject, was almost lost to history, and elderly, unfeminine Lobb has been reduced to a punchline. Their work changed art and deserves celebration. This project imagined Fanny as directed by May, positioned as a mythical Norse goddess on the beach in Vik or Ophelia left drowned and abandon on a hillside in Thingvellir.  Having an all-Black crew allowed the chance to reposition the Black female body as something pliable and beautiful, as much of a blank slate as any White body, without the attendant need to fit the role of “strong Black woman” or any other stereotypes. We centered Eaton in an imaginary conversation with Morris, casting her as the heroine of a wild landscape and raising questions of who is considered worthy of being memorialized. These are images I like to imagine the three would create together: Beautiful, mythical, and complex in an equally complex discussion.

About the Artist

My critical inquiry stems from a lifelong preoccupation with exploring femininity and beauty, and as a queer, middle-aged Black woman working primarily in the hyper-feminine world of fashion, I embody a complex and challenging identity. Clothing is a rich target for feminist critique, and as a designer, I continually explore an intersectional narrative. My recent work “Terre de Nos Aieux” considers ageing and the invisible female body, typified by Sleater-Kinney’s lyric “…there’s nothing so frightening and nothing so obscene as a well-worn body demanding to be seen”. Commercially this means creating with an eye towards a woman who only wants to play the role of herself. Existing in a milieu rarely inhabited by Black bodies of any gender, I am used to living moments of disruption and ageing has added a new layer of frustration - Ironically, just as I am more grounded in my identity, I have become harder for others to see.

Ageing’s gift is self-reflection, and I accept that I want to make work that is memorable and lasting. In “Terre de Nos Aïeux”, I investigate complex notions of Black femininity, women’s contributions to art, and beauty in relation to the work of the two unsung female Pre-Raphaelite artists: Black British artist’s model Fanny Eaton and illustrator May Morris, who traveled through Iceland in her 60’s. In my own time in Iceland I have sought new ways to connect with the country, and as I began exploring Mays’ work, accounts of her travels around Iceland with companion Mary Lobb influenced the routes I travel with my own wife.