Subject: Bitter Sweet/Cassava Culture Project 2003-2005

Exhibition & Interactive Audio-Visual Project (IAVP) Guyana High Commission (London)

Monday to Friday 1 - 5 March 2004 . 

Screenings and IAVP 10 am - 12 & 1 - 3pm


DO YOU HAVE MEMORIES OF BITTER CASSAVA?

Returning from Guyana after participating in Amerindian Heritage Month 2003 the London based artist Fiona Saffron Wilkes exhibits Bitter Sweet: Cassava Culture (II) for the first time in the UK as part of the Bitter Sweet/Cassava Culture Project 2003-2005. 


Exploring the boundaries between art and anthropology, traditional print languages and digital media, this project draws from research carried out throughout Guyana and the Caribbean for the last decade, on the cultivation cycle of the bitter cassava plant (Manihot esculenta) and its wider relation to Caribbean culture, heritage and social memory.


Bitter Sweet: Cassava Culture (II) is the second in a series of national and international exhibitions for this project, at The National Gallery in Guyana (2003), The Guyana High Commission (UK) (2004) and The Horniman Museum (2005). All exhibitions are accompanied by Interactive Audio-Visual Projects with audience participation.


Providing a challenging insight Bitter Sweet/Cassava Culture (II) includes the screening of recent image and sound projections exploring bitter cassava as a currency of exchange within the 21st century eco-tourist and heritage art market, echoing the heady mix of authenticities emanating from a narrative of nostalgia rooted in a desire which has motivated travellers to the New World. With a dependency on different levels of transparency and multiple readings Bitter Sweet: Cassava Culture (II) reveals a shifting landscape between local production and global exchange, in which bitter cassava artifacts serve as consumable imagery, performed, displayed and collected, nourishing a desire for mementos and souvenirs. 


The accompanying Interactive Audio-Visual Projects document multiple voices and shared memories within Caribbean communities, not only of bitter cassava's role as a vital source of knowledge and connection with the land, but also as a point of mediation between generations, cultures and communities as part of a landscape of diverse identities and memories.


Recognised for her contributions to the field of art and research on social memory and Amerindian culture, Fiona works with host Caribbean communities to create collaborative exhibitions and IAVPs. Part funded by the Arts Council, the artist will be documenting another IAVP at the Guyana High Commission (London), where she aims to develop a reciprocal dialogue through informal recorded discussions and welcomes all contributors. If you are interested in participating please visit the exhibition or email: [log in to unmask] 


For further information on the artist, see http://www.tate.org.uk/audiovideo/fieldworks/mcaulay.htm


Free admission 

Screenings and IAVP 10 am - 12 & 1 - 3pm

Exhibition - Monday to Friday 1 - 5 March 2004 . 

Where: The Guyana High Commission, 3 Palace Court, Bayswater Road, London, W2 4LP 

Tubes - Queens Way & Notting Hill Gate / Buses - 12, 70, 94, 148