HERITAGE & REPRESENTATION
Lead, Threads and Petals:
responding to The Wentworth Blackamoor,
Wentworth Castle Gardens. 24 September, 2014
Video produced by Pavilion. Pilot project funded by Capability Brown Festival and Heritage Lottery Fund; leading up to the 2016 Capability Brown 300 festival.
Pavilion, a visual arts commissioning organisation in Leeds, presented an "installation, performance and discussion responding to the
The project title was Lead, Threads and Petals and Sorhaindo's installation was entitled Useful Forgetfulness - combining textiles, natural dyes and nature with the narrative threads of enslavement, industry and trade. Dr Eyres enlightened a capacity audience on the
Carol Sorhaindo's installation - Useful Forgetfulness, drew inspiration from ancient stone circles, particularly Napta Playa, Nubia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabta_Playa). Plant narratives would interplay with site and cultural narratives - human communities, as well as plants classed as weeds, were cleared to make way for the Wentworth Castle estate. Many different types of narratives are hidden or misprepresented by ambition.
Sorhaindo's response to the Blackamoor also spoke to the obelisk in the grounds of Wentworth Castle Gardens. Much larger ancient obelisks were shipped with difficulty from Africa to America and Europe in the 19th century. The oldest obelisk in the world is in Ethiopia, fro
Heritage Corner entertained the large gathering with anectodes and quotes on ancient Egypt and Nubia - from Count Volney, Frederick Douglass and Leeds' own Wilson Armistead. Should Africans in history be redefined by past achievements or the objects of degradation imposed upon them?
