Traces Of Untold Stories
Robyn Denny
Curated by Els van Mourik
24 October – 22 November 2020
Artist Statement
Robyn Denny
Growing up in Durban, sugar plantations surrounded me – it was their lush fecundity which first drew me in.
Yet over time, a guttural unease – unconscious, unarticulatable – began to emerge. As a girl, visiting the Mauritian sugar plantations echoed and amplified these guttural inklings.
Now in Príncipe, where the old sugar and chocolate estate ruins are being devoured by nature, traces can be found about how plantations – such as the ones of my childhood – came into being. A tension and devouring is enacted in the foliage and architecture I paint and film on this barely known African island off Equatorial Guinea.
Here, I can feel in my epigenetics the recent violent thrust of the British/Dutch East India Companies, and the Portuguese with their own imperial economic voracity. A colonial wrenching and exploitation of a people to extract from Príncipe, but also from Mauritius and Durban, the sweet yet bitter yields of my childhood.
Nearing the completion of this film and painting cycle, the arc of exploration can be distilled into one motif: ‘tropical plantations and their subterranean stories’.
Limited edition prints in support of Fundação Príncipe
Fundação Príncipe is a local NGO based on Príncipe Island (São Tomé & Príncipe, West Africa) with the mission to create economic and social development opportunities, inspiring both current and future generations through – and for – biodiversity conservation.
Robyn Denny’s paintings and accompanying film, was inspired by the ruins of Roça Sundy chocolate plantation on Príncipe. Once a slave colony, Príncipe now constitutes a Unesco Biosphere Reserve, a pristine ecological paradise focused on environmental sustainability, conservation and community building.
Proceeds of Denny’s limited edition prints go towards supporting the work of the Fundação Príncipe; guardians of the community and the rainforest. These prints will be available online from Thursday 22 October 2020.
