In Absence of Pleasure

In Richard Maguire’s intricate drawings, colonial spectres are revived, offering glimpses of the often obscured intimate relationships between master and servant. In academic texts, the lack of historical prosecution is taken to suggest there were no such intimacies or abuses between Black and South Asian servants/slaves and their masters in a racial calculi that denies the chances of reexamining histories of intimate encounters and intimate violence.

For this publication and coinciding exhibition, Maguire draws from the colonial archives and mass-produced postcards by Higginbotham & Co, Madras which, depict South Asian men, flora and fauna and the shadows of images. This exoticised, lush imagery is dissected and reanimated in Maguire’s drawings, examining the complexity of those who found or created beauty within the absence of pleasure.

In Absence of Pleasure by Richard Maguire was co-produced with Maximilian William.