Joanna Southcott’s Box (2020)

Joanna Southcott (1750-1814) was a Devonshire prophetess whose ardent followers fully believed she would produce the new messiah. In early 1814, at the age of 64 and a virgin, she announced that the birth would be soon, and was examined by twenty doctors seventeen of whom confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. Her abdomen continued to swell for 10 months until she went into ‘labour’, dying shortly afterwards, likely of what ever it was that was causing her intestines to distend. Undeterred, her followers (who had made elaborate preparations including commissioning exquisite silverware, a crystal teething toy and a gold embossed cradle, some of which is in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter) claimed she had given birth to a spirit child.

She left behind a sealed chest full of prophecies with strict instructions as to the conditions under which it should be opened; at a time of national crisis in the presence of 24 ordained bishops. The box still remains unopened. In ‘Joanna Southcott’s Box’, I perform as the prophet, with a suggestively positioned box the colour of viscera

My photograph refers to old master painting, and is a play on what a box might be – a euphemism for female genitalia; a container; a vessel; a magician’s box into which the woman disappears to be chopped up; a box you get put in metaphorically. I wanted to portray Joanna as jaded, but with a wry sense of humour. I painted the box a visceral blood red. It acts as a gap, as something missing from the body.