An Unbound Book of Prayer
Series of textile works (12” x 16 1/4”)
Appliqué, eco-dyeing, crochet, embroidery & organic materials on linen
2022-2024
Experiments in natural dyes
Barbados-based artist Annalee Davis is expanding her textile work-in-process, An Unbound Book of Prayer, some of which are on display at Airas Wang de Lafée Gallery in Spain. These slowly made embroidered and appliqued handheld-size pieces of linen allude to plants with traditional use value drawing upon the history of the plot in the context of Barbadian plantation society, linking the living world with the urge to make beautiful things.
Inspired by Karen Armstrong’s publication 'Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World’ in which she suggests we start looking again to reignite a sense of reverence and wonder, these pieces reflect what Armstrong refers to as ‘the sacrality of all things”.
Unhurriedly made, these meditative works acknowledge that the climate crisis is both external and internal. They become strategies for feeling calm in their making, extending an invitation for slow-looking.
Confronting domestic estrangement resulting from externally imposed aspirations across the Caribbean shaped in educational curricula and further reinforced by the desire to acquire alien objects that mimic foreign notions of good taste, Annalee's linen 'hymn sheets', the larger circular and square works, Be Soft and Sargassum & Cerasee alongside Bless Up! are intended as secular daily devotionals or looking aids, reminiscent of and inspired by the bounty and sacrality of the living world grounded in a local fecundity referencing plants, many from the artist’s garden.
The use of embroidery acknowledges British sewing traditions that Barbadian women across race and class inherited and practiced over centuries, instilling notions of femininity. Rather than producing decorative works for the living room, once the prescribed domain of women, or adorning the surfaces of dressing tables, these slowly made protest placards acknowledge the urgency of these climatic times and the corresponding need to make things beautifully and slowly.
