On Saturday 26th November Bath was buzzing with Christmas market excitement. 44AD artspace was opening its artist studios to interested visitors and had their annual Bath humbug art market on while just one level under the artsellers feet we had the first face-to-face art event in the Botanical Encounters series with Barbadian artist Simbah Pilé. Simbah, who moved to Bath a year ago, came with pages ripped off Stevenson’s Treasure Island and soaked in tea, dried gingko leaves, orchids printed in transparent paper and lots of margold, orchid and dahlia images as well as a pile of Bath Life Magazines. The workshop’s idea was to look at colonial exploitation of plants and people and its present-day resonances including climate change and the decrease of biodiversity and think about the meaning of plants that travelled between cultures through colonial and postcolonial encounters. The workshop filled the small basement studio with colourful collages and stories ranging from robbed treasures to Adam and Eve hiding behind a page of the book, and from crowned black women to lime cordial.
