In the 1800's, the income from a small plantation in Pickerings, St Lucy (Barbados) financed the restoration of Brinkburn Priory in Northumberland (UK). This plantation enslaved approximately 160 men, women and children - these men, women and children were neither acknowledged then or now... the guidebook's comprehensive text fails to mention this detail- an oversight?
Last Sunday, I went to the area of Pickerings to see what remained today, to discover the plantation is still operating in full swing. The original estate house and slave quarters are now boarded up and decaying but they stand as a physical reminder of its former life.
Creating PLOT is not going to be easy, and knowing now that the former Pickerings plantation exists shifts the attention and direction of the project to this site.
I spend a lifetime creating 'Things To Do Lists' and for PLOT this is no exception. Below, this one is my ideal act of negotiations and tasks to make this work a reality. Over the course of 2007, external factors suggested the proposed site for installation is a highly unlikely proposition and permissions will be a great hurdle (though you can never underestimate what might capture people's imagination). But, in order to move things forward tasks need to be completed...this work may become the process and documentation of trying to make it. It could manifest into (unhealthy) obsession, dead ends and tangents (The artist, Sophie Calle could never fully resolve her fascination with money). But it begins with the 'To Do'...
An Ideal Things To Do List
1 Change tact by contacting the current owners of the plantation expressing an interest in the history of the property and a slow approach towards the proposal.
A letter may be the best approach to avoid blowing it in the first instance....
2 Get the owners of Brinkburn Priory on board - a fine balance....
Meanwhile...
3 Funding (enough said)
4 Find a surveyor who is willing to endeavour on the subversive task of surveying the plantation estate using traditional methods - this involves using chains and could take many days...
5 Continue discussions with the draughtsman based in Newcastle upon Tyne, who pine for the days before the generic AutoCad took over. Identify who is willing to collaborate on the hand-drawing of the 1:1 blueprint.
6 Install the blueprint within Brinkburn Priory (or an alternative destination)
To be continued with revisions and realism...
