in much more seismic ways.” Also, in reading letters between Wedgwood and Olaudah Equiano, a freed Nigerian slave who became an anti-slavery campaigner, Odundo was touched by “accounts of care and humanity are often forgotten and, equally, figures such as Equiano
get overlooked” – not to mention being in “awe of his bravery and what it meant for a black
person, a freed slave no less, to embark on
such a public campaign.”
Originally, in thinking about what she would create, Odundo thought she would develop a dinner service; but ultimately became drawn to
Wedgwood’s more whimsical centerpieces
which she believed would have provoked more conversation.
Odundo, in creating the massive Jasperware piece, imagined the “conversation in the parlour was always animated, fuelled by his famously ample wine cellar, taking in all the pressing political debates of the day.”
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