Description

Explore The Rum Story Exhibition before heading down to our Vaults for an exclusive Oceanic Transplants history and poetry talk from poet, interdisciplinary artist, grower, and martial artist of Caribbean, Haitian-Chinese ancestry Eileen Pun.

6th August

3 – 6pm

Tickets are £30pp and include admission to the exhibition and access to the exclusive talk in The Vault. Please pre-book to avoid disappointment.

3pm – Arrive and explore the 3 floor, immersive exhibition
4pm – Head down to The Vault, grab a drink and find a seat
4:30pm – Enjoy a talk from Eileen Pun
5:30pm – Time for questions
6pm – venue closes

Inspired by botanicals during the rise of oceanic trade, Eileen Pun will discuss aspects of European, British, American and Cumbrian history dating from the Medieval period, through Romanticism and Abolition that informed her poetry and artworks for The Rum Story. Not only an era of transporting goods, but also transplanting flora, bodies, ideas and objects. She will share research about the importance of Africa to global trade, and the Caribbean land & culturescapes that arose from the Plantocracy. Eileen collaborated with Glasgow Botanic Gardens, obtaining specific horticultural insights about commodity plants including: sugarcane, tea, coffee, cacao, rice, cotton and indigo.

Eileen Pun is a poet, interdisciplinary artist, grower, and martial artist of Caribbean, Haitian-Chinese ancestry. Her environmentally conscious art can be described as reflective, deeply practical, and research based with international reach. Eileen is a former intern to The Wordsworth Trust and considers her longstanding connection to Grasmere, Cumbria as a cornerstone of her poetry. She is also the owner of an off-grid, permaculture and biodynamic homestead. Her eco-work includes projects with growers and artisans in Abruzzo Italy, Sicily, Costa Rica, as well as ongoing artistic collaboration with rainforest defenders from indigenous Borneo and Malaysia, which inform her ecological studies and passion about the global histories of plant and people migration.  

Image: Wardian Case with Tea Plants, Ceylon Sri Lanka, (c) RBG Kew