The Keeper of All The Secrets : Ceramic Art, Botanicals and the Caribbean Market Woman

At the centre of ‘The Keeper of All The Secrets’ is an important acquisition from artist and writer Jacqueline Bishop, a tea service that is the stage for conversations around empire, enslavement and female resistance.

‘The Keeper of All The Secrets’: Ceramic Art, Botanicals and the Caribbean Market Woman centres around a new work in ceramic by contemporary artist and writer Jacqueline Bishop. Featuring original essays, poetry by Bishop and an extensive interview with the artist, the book considers the role and significance of the market woman, who enabled others living under colonialism to take control of their reproductive agency. With The Keeper of All The Secrets, the artist subverts the traditions of commemoration associated with the medium, using it instead to probe the legacies of colonial plantation systems and the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans, and to celebrate the knowledge and resistance of a female figure who has, until now, been critically overlooked. This book is part of the Royal Museums Greenwich Spotlight series, accessible introductions to some of the most intriguing objects in the collection.