At Spadina House or “Louisa Pipkin’s Manor,” as Toronto artist Gordon Shadrach calls it, visitors these days are dropping by to take in the beautiful new art pieces that adorn the walls.
But this beautiful historic mansion just steps away from Casa Loma isn’t actually Louisa Pipkin’s home. It belonged to the Austin Family, one of whom founded the Dominion Bank of Canada.
So who was Louisa Pipkin? She was a real-life Black freedom seeker who worked as a laundress for the Austin Family back in the 1870s.
As for the art pieces that currently adorn the walls? They’re part of a new art exhibit called “Dis/Mantle,” which is on display at Spadina House.
“The aim of this exhibit was to dismantle colonialism in a way,” said Shadrach, creator of and the main contributor to the exhibit. He says the exhibit aims to reimagine Spadina House through an Afrofuturism lens, where Mrs. Pipkin is the homeowner, and the house is a safe haven for abolitionists and Black freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad.
“We chose to single out a few people who are actually contributing to the movement of Black people in a positive way through the portraits I’ve done,” Shadrach said.
Hung on the walls of “Mrs. Pipkin’s Manor” are portraits of modern-day Black, iconic figures, artists, filmmakers, athletes — even the Toronto Raptors — many of them, reimagined in antiquated garb and dismantling how Black history is often told.
“The name ‘Dis/Mantle’ is significant to me because it’s looking at taking something apart, brick by brick,” Shadrach said.
“I also like the idea of the word ‘Mantle,’ which of course would be like the fireplace mantel which would be the heart of the home. … So I was playing with the idea of ‘dismantling’ or taking something apart, but also the idea of this is ‘dis mantle’ — this is our mantel.”
Shadrach also points out a common motif in his paintings — portraying modern-day Black iconic figures, like Dalano Banton from the Toronto Raptors for instance, with his natural hair and in historic clothing.
“In history when we look at how Black people would have been so-called ‘assimilated,’ they would have been forced to mirror the stylings of their oppressors,” Shadrach said. “By giving people their natural hair, for example, I’m trying to also reclaim the rights they should have had in those time periods.”
Another common motif visitors may notice as they walk through the exhibit, is the reoccurring red line that is dominant in Shadrach’s work. That is no accident.
But also, Shadrach added, the lines show how Black people interact with those barriers. “They are sometimes in the portraits interacting with the barriers, sometimes they are oblivious to them.”
Shadrach also said that he covered with a black shroud some of the portraits adorning the walls to represent the Black history that is often erased.
The exhibit features soundscapes, ceramics and visual art — and not just from Shadrach, but from Canadian artists across the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, such as Sharon Norwood. The exhibit runs until the end of December and visitors can join free guided tours of the museum.
“When we go to historic museums and homes, we don’t see references to Black people and a lot of people have told me how they never felt comfortable visiting spaces like this,” Shadrach said.