February 22nd to July 27th 2025, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
‘Those that do not smile will kill me’ is a new installation work, supported by the University of the Arts London Decolonising Institute’s 20/20 programme and Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
Consisting of paintings on silk, animation, projection on acrylic, a soundscape and a digital print on cotton, ‘Those that do not smile will kill me’ is an exploration of the resistance and liberation gained through the plant world of Jamaica’s natural landscape, from the enslaved people who inhabited the island in the 1700’s. It is an exploration of the stories behind exploitation and extraction of the island’s precious natural resources.
Since summer 2023, Ashman has been in residence at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery’s collection, researching archives from the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection and exploring specimens in the Natural History collection. Ashman’s time in residence led her to explore the collections of two 18th-century biologists, whose herbaria and archives are held in the museum. Arthur Broughton (1758-1796) accumulated flowers and plants in Jamaica in the 1780s and 90s and this herbarium is a resource for study of the botany on the island. The ‘pro-slavery priest’ John Lindsay (1729 -1788) settled in Jamaica in 1758. He produced an illustrated manuscript, depicting local flora and fauna . Both men relied on the knowledge of Africans enslaved on the island to develop their understanding and to aid in the collecting itself
Ashman came to Broughton and Lindsay via the writings of the Scottish pharmacist John Small held in the BECC collection. The owner of a coconut plantation in Jamaica, Small described the island as a ‘land of milk and honey’. Ashman wanted to dig deeper and understand the experiences of those who were indigenous and enslaved on this island “paradise”
‘Those that do not smile will kill me’ aims to ask the question: whose paradise is this? She has taken this line of enquiry further to explore how Indigenous and African-Jamaicans used plants to resist their enslavement: from growing for food to harvesting for poisons, hallucinogens, medicine and birth control. Ashman’s paintings on silk give agency to the minute African figures who appear in Lindsay’s drawings. She posits an alternative narrative for the figures: from growing to feed and sell, to resistance and rebellion: Jamaica was known to have the highest number of uprisings during enslavement out of all of the Caribbean.
The title comes from a proverb that tells the danger of the Jamaican fruit, Ackee, part of Jamaica’s national dish, Ackee and Saltfish. If the fruit is not ripe, ie, does not split and ‘smile’, it is poisonous. Ashman questions the Enlightenment version of scientific investigation, the narrative that European colonisers owned this knowledge and the trauma of the extraction and exploitation of Jamaica’s natural resources and people.
Through immersive soundscapes and moving image, Ashman also seeks to imagine a utopia through the magic of growing and how the enslaved people of the island connected to their spirituality through the landscape of Jamaica. Sonically, she has created a 30 minute soundscape with musician and composer, Auclair, that expands on the alternative universe Ashman has created and embodies the interority of the characters she has created.
Read a Q&A between Jessica Ashman and two of our curators which explores the themes of her work and what to expect from her exhibition.