Since 2012, Mother Tongue have been undertaking archival and collection research in Scotland, and further afield, as a primary means to establish a chronology of Black artists working, living, studying and exhibiting in Scotland, historically and in the present.

For Tilting Axis 3, the work of three seminal Caribbean practitioners - Donald Locke, Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling - will be brought into focus, charting their activity and projects in Scotland through the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Their time and exhibitions in Scotland have gone unacknowledged, with no work or representation held by these three practitioners locally.
This presentation will chart the work of Locke, Williams and Bowling in Scotland, before opening itself up to considerations around working with the archive. Of particular emphasis will be questions around strategies to address the gaps in narratives of art in Scotland; the locations of archives and information dispersed beyond Scotland; connections and networks circumventing the “centre;” and the possibilities for re-addressing historical gaps with this research through means beyond the exhibition.

As part of Panel 3 - Collective Curatorial Practices