Arnos Vale Painting

This piece is from the Bristol Presentiments 1770 series, I researched and used pigments which were listed in the Bristol Presentiments papers from the first half of 1700, as having been imported throughBristol Docks. I made a series of paintings using the listed pigments. The titles of these small pieces come from areas of Bristol impacted by the trade in the docks. Each piece in its simplicity is intended to create a space, a space to remember. Indigo was part of the slave trade triangle and was one of the most commonly listed pigments in the papers. It is material evidence of a particular time and place, but also of our shared history, and holds the stories of just what that means, and has a legacy that comes up to the present. In acknowledgement of that, and a small gesture to social justice all genuine indigo that I use in my paintings is fair trade.