The Table Series by Ethel-Ruth Tawe
multi-disciplinary artist
Ethel-ruth tawe reflects upon the value of collective care for Black women in ‘the table series’
words Ethel-Ruth Tawe
What does collective care look like for Black women? Perhaps a space of offering, solidarity, or accountability? Is it the generative justice intrinsic to the economics of women-led cooperative traditions in Africa? May it be the counsel in self-care practices or the unspoken exchange in recognising each other's presence? These sweet rituals of care are profound in their simplicity and quotidian nature but also in the structural shifts they are able to amass beyond Black women. In a 2019 collaborative photo series with Hanahana Beauty, a consciously clean skincare brand, I shot The Table Series, centring and celebrating Black womanhood. The series was inspired by American photographer Carrie Mae Weems’ “The Kitchen Table Series” (1990) and was captured in Accra, Ghana. For Weems, the kitchen table represented a site of joy and battle for the family, as well as everyday realities, both monumental and mundane, of Black women in the United States and beyond. In a similar light, my Table Series explores the Black female form in relation to self, space and kinship.
The resonance of Weems’ approach lies in her desire to create in the comfort of a familiar environment, a space of domesticity which has historically ‘belonged’ to women. The self-instructed rhythm and spontaneity of creating at home unlock a unique pace to image-making; one which many have (re)visited in the context of the pandemic. Weems’ pioneering work staged new narratives around the Black family and explored various forms of interpersonal relationships. Her “Kitchen Table Series” encourages Black women to explore our positionality as individuals in the contexts of our communities, negotiating spaces of shared responsibility and questioning the role of women as caretakers and homemakers. Weems’ method of inquiry was simple. A wooden table illuminated by a singular light—a spotlight—to present a bold one-point perspective. In the series, Weems acts as the protagonist, the audience and (of course) the artist. Her photographs unfold like a film strip, revealing moments of grief, love, tension and joy through her own body language and that of her other subjects.
Photos from The Kitchen Table Series (1990) by Carrie Mae Weems
The Table Series similarly reclaims domestic space by glimpsing into the art of ‘getting ready’ and the importance of finding comfort in one’s skin and community. Like Weems, the magic lies for me in the process of looking and drawing in attention. I’ve long been intrigued by the ways in which women photograph themselves and their subtleties. This intimate creation is not solely for the public eye but also for self-discovery. How do our bodies feel in ‘relegated’ spaces? How do we respond to others within these contexts and whom? How do the structures of our families and homes evoke emotion or inform the body? What are the correlations between homemaking, self-care and neglect?
The Table Series makes these inquiries and expands conceptions of home to include the body and a chosen sisterhood in which Black women share space, beauty practices and knowledge. In conversation with my muses, my friends, we learnt from each other in a collaborative process that shaped the essence of the work. The treatment of rich dark skin is paramount to the aesthetic value of The Table Series. The use of warm tones and grain in the images, within the context of a home space, speak to notions of care, comfort and conversation. A landscape of possibilities unfold when playing with light and shadow, and the ways in which our skin responds. The politics of feeling good are at play in documenting the holding of space for Black women to bask in their glory. Where the body finds healing in shared space, there is a reminder to tend our collective power.
Photo from The Table Series by Ethel-Ruth Tawe
The story behind Hanahana’s shea butter line is one embedded with the ethos of this practice of self and collective care, captured in collaborative photo stories like The Table Series. As a small business, their process from producer to consumer intentionally centres Black women’s socio-economic well-being. Hanahana sources its shea butter from the Katariga Women’s Cooperative in Tamale, Ghana, where a wealth of knowledge lies in the hands of a lineage of cooperatives who have sustained themselves over time.
Photo from The Table Series by Ethel-Ruth Tawe
Hanahana’s goal is to build a holistic bottom-up structure to improve and ensure self-sustainability for the women within the shea trade, especially through healthcare support. Black women are the highest contributors to the beauty industry in the US yet their representation has been trivial. Despite this discrepancy, Black-owned wellness and beauty spaces that centre Black experiences are recognising this economic power and transmitting knowledge through social programs. For Hanahana, their curations and visual campaigns are modes of storytelling and narrative-shaping on Black women’s own terms. The Table Series was created with the spectrum of these women in mind, from producer to consumer.
These forms of care that centre Black womanhood, move beyond the individual body into the collective body. Collective care is political and expansive; it is embedded in what adrienne maree brown refers to as ‘pleasure activism’ which asks us to rethink activism’s ground rules and aim to make social justice the most pleasurable human experience. The social contracts and dynamics that Weems interrogates around domesticity, relationships and the role of Black women aim to reframe the Kitchen Table as a site of joy and battle in the home. Subsequently, the home is then reimagined in my Table Series not only as physical shelter but as the individual and collective body where our activism begins, through the staging of conversations and poised yet bold gestures.
Photo from The Table Series by Ethel-Ruth Tawe
The role of image-making is to inform, inquire and blur the lines between art and life. In The Table Series, I do this by spotlighting structural dynamics and ethics of care embodied within Black womanhood. Black women (and Black people) are not a monolith. In the case of these two series, tracing parallels across the diaspora reveals the nuances and commonality of how Black women continuously find ways to commune and care for themselves, to the subsequent betterment of their communities. From the shared profits of shea butter cooperatives in Tamale, Ghana, to the rites of passage staged on Weems’ kitchen table in Massachusetts, we are reminded of the integral role of Black women to the body politic. The cultural significance of a career-driven woman is no more than a homemaker, and vice-versa. Quintessential Black/African communities teach us how the cared-for become the carers and how forms of care differ vastly per group and the range of folk who identify as women.
At its core, collective care is an opportunity for mutual benefit. This is essential at a time when Black women, in particular, continue to make space for healing, no longer asking for a seat at the table but constructing a new table instead. For Weems, as for myself, such demands for social justice are at the centre of the work. As these visual inquiries and similar bodies of work are increasingly more accessible online, we must ask ourselves: How have practices of care metamorphosed over time to become more radical and pleasurable? What has been the role of online platforms for collective care? How are we learning from each other?
We are all in context and relation with each other, influenced by those around us or who we call upon. The power and thread of influence is a feature of Black feminism that nurtures collaborative processes, recognises and builds upon a canon of work that centres ourselves. In my experience, and as Weems rightfully notes, by paying attention and being in tune with your work, the work reveals to you what it needs. Embedded within it is an opening for the next exploration, if we simply get out of our own way. In the same way that The Table Series prompts inquiry into Black women’s collective care, I allow image-making to reveal and teach me about the ways in which we archive and write ourselves into history as Black women. The impact of representation and introspection is then paramount to how the works are read.
The Table Series
photography Ethel-Ruth Tawe
creative direction Ethel-Ruth Tawe & Abena Boamah
muses Dossé-Via, Dela Anku, Tasia Cobbinah
skin Hanahana Beauty
Ethel-Ruth Tawe is a multidisciplinary artist, editor and creative consultant interested in identity, afrodiasporic visual cultures and exploring Africa’s ancient futures from a magical realist lens.