The World Reimagined Art Residency UK Reflective Journal Phase 2, Hospitafield, Arbroath, Scotland

Hi readers. In my last  last post I shared with you the first three weeks experience of The World Reimagined Art Residency in the UK . This post covers the following three weeks and my experience based at Hospitafield in Scotland.

​About The World Reimagined
The World Reimagined is a ground-breaking, vibrant art education project to transform how we understand the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and its impact on all of us so that we can make racial justice a reality, together. Supported by Official Presenting Partner SKY, the project will see a trail of large Globe sculptures across seven cities including: Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool City Region, London, and Swansea. From 13 August to 31 October 2022, the globes will be displayed across these cities, inspiring and galvanising communities to better understand what it means to be Black and British. Bringing to life the reality and impact of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans by remembering the past, whilst still moving forward - celebrating the spirit and culture that has endured so much suffering. With support from The Arts Council England, the Caribbean artist residences have delivered significant, proven community benefit to the host cities.

The trails will be the centre of learning, community and heritage programmes that invite everyone to take part: www.theworldreimagined.org/

​The second phase of my art residency was based at Hospitafield house, Arbroath, on the North East coast of Scotland. The building is an impressive mansion with distinctive architectural features, towers and gothic decorative details. Sections of the house date from the 13th century abbey with 19th century additions. The property was purchased by the Reverend James Fraser around 1664 and then owned by successive generations of the Fraser family, the final one being the wealthy heiress and widow Elizabeth Fraser. Elizabeth married Scottish artist Patrick Allan, the son of an Arbroath weaving merchant and together they  remodelling the house, converting an 18th-century barn into a gallery, and setting up a trust to support young artists. To this day the legacy of supporting artists remains offering residency opportunities which encourage questioning and exploration for future work. Artists stopping in the house have access to the amazing historic rooms, library and collections.  
Arbroath is a small town with a significant history in the story of human liberty.  In 1320 the declaration letter of Arbroath was signed finally granting Scotland independence from English rule after a long war for freedom.

On arrival I was welcomed to Arbroath and met by Cicely Farrer the programme and communications manager at Hospitafield.  The house is grand and impressive and my bedroom fitted with antique furniture and large windows which looked out onto the walled garden and sea beyond. The four poster bed and background sound of waves brought back nostalgic memories of my Grandmother’s house in Dominica making me feel strangely at home.  

5th April      Grounds and Fernery

The gardens at Hospitafield have a fascinating history which date back to the 13th century walled garden and monks who built a hospital about a mile away from the abbey. They planted healing herbs and fruit trees. In the late 1800’s a Victorian fernery was designed by Patrick Alan Frazer with a fern collection donated by the Royal Botanic Gardens Edingburgh. The Victorians were very obsessed with ferns with fern designs appearing in garden furniture, home decor and literature. This obsession led to collectors building hothouses and specially designed ferneries to house the exotic displays. Ferns are symbolic in many cultures representing hope, new life, ancestral honouring, unfolding futures. The new Hospitafield logo reminds me of the Ghanain adinkra symbol above ‘AYA’ representing endurance, perseverance, resourcefulness. Although not part of my original design I would like to incorporate ferns into the globe design as a memorial of the special time in Arbroath and also as a reminder of my African roots and the lush Dominica rainforests home to the runaway Maroons. 

Books found in the library room show line drawings of some of the plants featured in my globe design and highlighting 19th century botanical interests. 

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​Botanicals, Textiles and decorated surfaces in the house
The house and gardens appealed to my botanical interest. Throughout the building there was imagery of flora carved in stone and wood, fine examples of skilled craftsmanship. My favourite was the cracked leather wallcovering and the ceiling in the music room which was entirely covered in delicately hand carved panels of local flora, each carving featuring a different plant. 

Rural Surroundings

Being close to the ocean reminds me of ancestral journeys. The fresh and reviving connection to nature through the combination of earth, water and air made me feel alive and liberated. Sea and soil are backdrops for the botanical detailing of my globe design, both significant in narratives of botanical and human transplantation.

Gorse Bushes

​Thursday 7th April     Out and about Arbroath with Artist Jeni Reid 
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Before arriving I had read about the artist Jeni Reid who had previously done a residency at Hospitafield. Jeni resides in the area and agreed to meet up and take me on a tour around Arbroath. Textiles are also Jeni's passion, with ancestral connections to the spinning and weaving history of the area. Her project 'Blueprints for Arbroath' was inspired by the layered history of Osnaburg textiles and the men, women and children of Arbroath who worked in the industry making cloth which went off to West Indian plantations. We had lots to talk about as we share historical and textile interests.   

​Frederick Douglass delivered one of his anti slavery lectures at the Trades Hall in Arbroath in February 1846. 

Textile mill in Arbroath and typical red sandstone walls of buildings in the area

Arbroath Abbey Ruin 

​Black History in Arbroath

In the context of my art practice and textile history, I am particularly interested in the spinning and weaving  of flax and hemp in Arbroath for the production of Osnaburg textiles used as sail cloths and clothing for enslaved Africans on plantations in America and the West Indies. Companies such as Corsar and Sons and 18th century Arbroath based sail makers Francis Webster raised my curiousity. Arbroath also has a history of ship building, some of these leaving for the West Indies. A lot of research potential here, however I am aware the focus here is painting in an already limited time.

​The area is well known for 'Arbroath smokies', Smoked fish, also shipped off to America and the West Indies. I was interested in stories which highlighted accounts of Black presence in the 18th and 19th century Arbroath. One such story is of George Grant a townsman of Arbroath in the late 1780’s whose son went to Jamaica. In Jamaica he married a woman of colour. On their parents death the two children were sent back to Arbroath to live with their Grandmother who ran a dressmaking business. After her death the girls ran the business for many years. There are other stories which speak of the entangled history in the area. An article put out in a local newspaper by a Mr David Frazer of Arbroath for the capture of an escaped Negro servant Samuel Ramsay aged 18 years of age.

,Thursday 7th April   - Studio space and The Globe arrives

I was very excited and relieved to hear that the globe is arriving. A bit concerned that I have lost painting days in a tight deadline but I could now start plotting out the design layout and get into painting of this sphere which is my blank canvas. Up till now it has been quite difficult to imagine the physicality of the surface to be painted. The globe is quite a beautiful object smooth and perfectly white. I was quite apprehensive about making the first mark. There had been a bit of excitement built up over the arrival and other resident artists on site eager to see what the ‘mystery object’ looked like.
In the early stages of painting, until I find my flow I find it challenging working with others around as I am used to working in isolation. For the next week the space was shared with other artists already in residence so I had to find strategies of working with the situation and coming out of my comfort zone. It was also good to have others to bounce off and offer moral support.   

Before the arrival of the globe I set up the studio space to make it feel like home. The space is light and airy with high glazed ceilings and windows looking out onto open fields. The first studio was built by Patrick Alan Fraser in 1850 with two other spaces following in 1901. My preliminary sketches were placed on the walls and paints set out ready to begin.​​

Also Friday  8th April   Sharing at Hospitafield

I was asked to give a talk about my practice and the World Reimagined project to the group of 11 graduates artists who were in residence. We were also joined by a few of the staff at Hospitafield and Glasgow based photographer/curator Sekai Machache. Sekai was born in Zimbabwe and explores notions of self in her work. Her photographic portrait greats me as I walk up the grand staircase to my bedroom each day. It makes a powerful statement in the grandness of this house. Although no obvious slave trade connections yet revealed in the history of Hospitafield, I am somehow comforted by this image here. It is a significant piece of work in this ‘time capsule’ space which speaks of Scottish affluence. If one has time and digs deep enough in the history of the people connected with the house links are sure to be found due to the very intertwined nature of Colonial history.  It is this deep rooted entanglement which interests me and feeds my work. 

​Part of the residency experience at Hospitafield was eating together and we were made to feel very special and catered for by Simon the chef who cooked very wholesome and healthy meals. Hot soups were very welcome on the freezing cold days.

One of the resident artists expressed an interest in learning some basic natural dye techniques so I was happy to share some natural dye experience using nettles foraged from the garden and salvaged vegetable peel from the kitchen.

t was very interesting to witness how other artists work and developed in the space. The work of Katherine Allen was of particular interest as she explored relationship between emotions and the gut health, building an outdoor oven from apple twigs, clay and materials salvaged from the site. We were all invited to share in her bread baking and culinary delights made from locally sourced heritage wheat and foraged plants.

​A group visit to the Cemetery and Memorial Building built by artist Patrick Alan-Fraser as a memorial to his deceased wife Elizabeth and her parents John Fraser and Elizabeth Parrot-Fraser. An intriguing piece of architecture with beautifully hand carved columns and sandstone details. I was drawn to a section of carving with chain link detail which stood out as very unusual amongst the standard floral decoration of the building. 

​Self reflections in historic spaces  (a) Art commission by Sekai Machache placed at the top of stairway                          (b) Self reflections in hallway 

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ARCHIVAL RESEARCH - BRINGING THE PAST TO LIGHT

There is something quite exciting about digging in historical archives. Before travelling I had heard of the Journals of Jonathan Troupe, a physician from Aberdeen who lived and worked in Dominica in the 18th century. Aberdeen being so close I booked an appointment to view the journals first hand. After following rigorous archival protocol of hand washing and security checks, the journals were taken out of storage and brought out in neatly tied parcels. It was very exciting opening up the mystery objects and reading the handwritten script as I turned the fragile pages.  

On 27th March 1791 Troupe reported regret at leaving Roseau, the capital of Dominica and more cheerful getting into a cooler climate. In his 1790 cash book he mentions herbal remedies for colds, coughs and lungs using lemons, rum and cocoa. He also mentions ‘unspoken water’ which aroused my curiousity. On further research I found out this was a Scottish custom and belief in the healing properties of water collected from under a bridge over which the living pass and the dead are carried.

Painting Process 

Before arrival in the UK sketch ideas were submitted for approval My theme in the seven themes on this Journey of Discovery with the World Reimagined is 'Expanding Soul'. My concept explores our connection to nature and botanical stories of wisdom, trauma, indigenous knowledge, trade and economics all entangled in Transatlantic trade history. I played with highs and lows, light and dark in an emotive and undulating creative journey. The physicality of my own migration story and relationship between Britain and the Caribbean  play a part of this exploratory process. The plants I actual grow here in Dominica are featured in the work and used as references for drawings and painting. I wanted viewers to connect to the roots and the plants as entities in themselves from which the commodities are sourced for economic gain, very often at the expense of humanity. 

Time was spent in the earlier week sketching, testing ideas, researching and I felt ready to begin painting. It was very important to work systematically also leaving room for artistic alterations along the way. The studio space was an artists dream in terms of space and light but the freezing temperatures at times difficult to contend with making progress and drying slow. ​

A technique of applying colours in layers was used, incorporating texture by using 3D acrylic medium to build up areas of added interest and threads into entangled root areas of the plants. 

At the end of my three weeks at Hospitafield I was happy with the end result of the globe although ideally I could have done with two extra days to 'sit with' the completed work. It was a great experience at Hospitafield with a balance of hard work as well as time for reflection and enjoying the stunning scenery around. 

​ So far I have shared snippets of my processes and look forward to showing you the end product of the commission once the globes are revealed and the trails start in August.