'The Gorgeous Nothings' brings together contemporary voices to engage with the Chatsworth House’s historic collections. Known for her thought-provoking practice, Kapwani Kiwanga explores power dynamics, colonial histories and botanical narratives through her immersive installations. View her installation 'The Marias' in the show.
This piece consists of two realistic reproductions in steel wire and coloured paper of a Caesalpinia pulcherrima, also known as peacock flower. This plant, native to the Americas and the Caribbean, is shown here as a flowering branch on one base and a budding branch on a second base. Widely cultivated as an ornamental plant today, this plant was nevertheless used for its abortifacient properties, particularly by women in conditions of slavery, brought by force to the territories where the peacock flower is endemic. Refusing to reproduce in a system created in such a way that these women no longer legally possess their own bodies is a political act and a way of reclaiming this fundamental right.
The work also refers to the history of other women in Europe, in the Victorian era, from a very privileged background, whose society does not expect them to work, but rather to occupy themselves with hobbies such as making ornamental paper flowers, which are exceptional replicas of the natural flowers from which they draw inspiration. This piece thus questions different ways of experiencing being born a woman between the 17th and 19th centuries.
'The Gorgeous Nothings' is on view at Chatsworth House until 20 October 2025
