DESCRIPTION

The “Chocolate Islands” of São Tomé and Príncipe were Portuguese slave colonies giving the world cacao until the early twentieth century. In Traces of Untold Stories, Robyn Denny’s ink paintings, prints and video stills evoke the chocolate plantation ruins of Príncipe, a tiny island off the western equatorial coast of Africa. Denny’s series includes a video installation ‘Song for the Ruins’ which arose from a visible, visceral, tension between trauma and renewal. The artist was haunted by the sense of the natural world erupting from the decaying buildings with their remnants of collective memory and loss. Príncipe is now an official biosphere reserve, and Denny has dedicated proceeds from sales of her limited edition prints supporting the valuable community work done by ‘Fundação Príncipe’.