Maud Sulter, 'Calliope'

Maud Sulter (born 1960)
'Calliope'
1989
C-type print
Museum No. E.1796-1991

The Photograph

This self-portrait of the artist as Calliope is part of a series of studio portraits that show creative black women as the nine muses of Greek mythology. The series is called Zabat and was produced in response to the celebration of the 150th anniversary of photography in 1989 - an overwhelmingly white occasion.

The format is that of large-scale history portraits within which each subject is classically posed. The sitters are striking for not being passive or white, as traditional images in this stylistic format would be.
The writer Alice Walker appears in the series as Thalia, the muse of comedy. Sulter poses as Calliope, the muse of poetry. She writes of this image, 'If you're black and female the chance of one's poetry being attributed to one in later life is slim.'

My Blackness My Cloak

My blackness is a beautiful cloak
Of selfhood that permeates my soul
So sister-white feminist
When you see
a bit of sun
Don't come
rushing to me
To say
'Look, I'll be as brown
(never black - God forbid)
as you soon'
or also common
'I get even darker
than you'
Don't show
Your peeling red flesh
Sister
I couldn't give a damn.

Maud Sulter, from As a Black Woman, 1985

The Photographer

Maud Sulter was born in Glasgow of Scots-Ghanaian parentage. She is a poet, historian, teacher and artist. Her work is concerned with questions of identity and the power relations around authorship.

This photograph can be found in Print Room Box 16.