Plotting Resistance: An Afternoon with Annalee Davis and Peggy Brunache

How do we practice resistance through alternative farming practices, cultivating living apothecaries and developing our knowledge for wild plants? Beginning from the two tea blends created for this show, Annalee Davis will be joined by Dr Peggy Brunache, to look at the Scottish-Caribbean connections through discussing food, herbs and plants to engage with topics of ingredients, migration, trade, identity. They will discuss the legacies of the plantation, a practice of monoculture that continues to spawn extractive economies resulting in further environmental issues to generate wider conversations around practising a different relationship to the land.

(We welcome you to join us earlier at 3pm at the galleries for a tasting tea session with Annalee Davis to experience the two tea blends made specifically for this show)

Annalee Davis' hybrid practice is as a visual artist, cultural instigator, and writer. Her work sits at the intersection of biography and history, focussing on post-plantation economies by engaging with a particular landscape on Barbados. Her studio, located on a working dairy farm that operated historically as a 17thC sugarcane plantation, offers a critical context for her practice.

Drawing, walking, making (bush) teas, and growing living apothecaries, Annalee Davis’ practice suggests future strategies for repair and thriving while investigating the role of botanicals and living plots as sites of refusal, counter-knowledge, community, and healing.

Annalee is currently exhibiting in "Staple: What’s on your plate?”, an inaugural show at Haay Jameel (Jeddah). Recent exhibitions include “And if I devoted my life to one of its feathers?” (Kunsthalle Wien, Austria) and “Potential Agrarianisms: Will there be sugar after the rebellion?” (Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia). Upcoming exhibitions include the group exhibition, “Vanishing Lines” (Venezuela, Uruguay, and Bolivia), the Sharjah Biennale and a major commission for the National Trust for Scotland exploring historic links between Scotland and Barbados.

Dr Peggy Brunache is a lecturer in the history of Atlantic slavery at the University of Glasgow and the Director of the newly established Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies. Born in Miami to Haitian parents, she trained and worked as a historical archaeologist with a focus on plantation studies, the African diaspora and the transatlantic slave trade, working on archaeological projects in Benin, West Africa, Guadeloupe, and various sites in the United States. She is a founding member of the European Society of Black and Allied Archaeologists (ESBAA). Recently, she developed a free 4-week ongoing online course on British Slavery in the Caribbean with Futurelearn.com. Other projects include working with food, music and science festivals. Food is also central to Peggy's life and work. She acts as culinary consultant for Perth’s Southern Fried music festival. Her media appearances include the US’s Food Network, Discovery Science Channel, BBCTV's Black and British documentary series and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Scotland ’s programmes.