Iwan Bala Libri

Scots were involved in every stage of the slave trade: from captaining slaving ships to auctioning captured Africans in the colonies and hunting down those who escaped from bondage. This book focuses on the Scottish Highlanders who engaged in or benefitted from these crimes against humanity in the Caribbean Islands and Guyana, some reluctantly but many with enthusiasm and without remorse. Their voices are clearly heard in the archives, while in the same sources their victims' stories are silenced - reduced to numbers and listed as property.David Alston gives voice not only to these Scots but to enslaved Africans and their descendants - to those who reclaimed their freedom, to free women of colour, to the Black Caribs of St Vincent, to house servants, and to children of mixed race who found themselves in the increasingly racist society of Britain in the mid-1800s.As Scots recover and grapple with their past, this vital history lays bare the enormous wealth generated in the Highlands by slavery and emancipation compensation schemes. This legacy, entwined with so many of our contemporary institutions, must be reckoned with.

Focusing on the visual arts in Wales, this comprehensive survey examines both individual artists and the broader infrastructure supporting their work. It features essays on a diverse range of creators, from established figures like Ivor Davies and Ernest Zobole to emerging talents such as Neal Howells and Ellyn Lewis. The book delves into the significance of art for the Welsh community, addressing themes of cultural representation and the contentious nature of art curation in Wales, including the decision-making processes behind public exhibitions.

Using a retrospective approach, this collection of essays provides an illuminating and informative commentary on the artwork of Tim Davies. Explored are the practice, the international contexts, and the recurring motifs of Davies's art. Davies himself also provides a commentary on five of his significant pieces. Internationally exhibited and acclaimed, Davies utilizes humble, commonplace, or reclaimed materials to make works of art that engage with contemporary issues through a formal and minimal visual language. Discussed is a seminal work in which he laid parquet in the Belizean jungle, and plants then grew through the blocks and termites eroded them. Davies's use of change, both organic and by intervention, is explored.