Jacky Puzey

May 1 – 18 2005 at 1-3 Exchange Avenue, Off Corn Street, St. Nicholas Markets, Bristol BS1

Postcolonial Dreamcoats was exhibited at St Nicholas Markets with the kind agreement and facilitation of Bristol’s Markets Team. Within the context of Bristol’s Markets, the Dreamcoats became traders of history and status, reflecting both the dynamic exchanges of trade, culture and place that forms any trading network, while obliquely referencing the histories of the goods, politics and power structures within those networks. For example, the main Exchange Market Hall still retains the carvings over the doorways, referencing the merchants’ ambitions, in the 1740’s, to trade globally, from Africa to Asia to America to Bristol, while the farmers and the Corn Exchange traders brought local produce – this exhibition venue is the old Somersetshire Market Hall. Today’s traders bring a diversity of produce and culture, from Fair Trade and organic goods to handmade clothing to cafés and global foods. My work uses fabric, food references and trade references to give a very personal exploration of travelling those global trade routes today. Both the building and the costumes contain symbols of power and wealth, remembering cycles of complicity and exchange, interwoven histories that ignite into contested histories through economic power and disempowerment. Both building and costumes also contain the personal memories, motivations and aspirations of traders and travellers, from the medieval inns that formed the city’s old hub for travellers and traders before the Exchange Market, to the holiday souvenirs and postcards that decorate my costume fabrics. In a sense the crucial point is to retain the stories of those who trade, travel and meet in these situations, in order to navigate accepted or contested histories.

During the exhibition at the Markets I was researching and adding to the piece. The tablecloth of remembered recipes such as pineapple crumble considered food as a lasting memory of travel and exchange. Wall drawings, growing during the show, reference trade histories of the goods within the carpet, and tied them in with the trading histories of the Markets,  such as the old coffee houses and the diversity of produce, and current issues of fair trade and commercial exchange. The old corn box and table, from the original Corn Exchange, became a lucky dip of trade-able commodities buried in corn and rice, regularly updated with global commodity market prices.

Thanks to the BCC Markets team for their support in letting me use this space.

Jacky Puzey 2005