Ann Mary Gollifer / Visual Arts / Sacatar Fellow 2024 / UK > Botswana
www.anngollifer.org

My book “Views in the interior of Guyana,” begun in 2012 and completed in 2021, initiates a dialogue with the work by Robert Schomburgk, “Views in the interior of Guiana” published in 1841. His book recorded his first expedition to British Guiana for geographical, ethnological and botanical exploration on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society, London. Such was it’s success, Schomburgk was sent back to British Guiana to secure provisional eastern and western boundaries, with Venezuela and Suriname. He later helped arbitrate the southern boundary with Brazil. I was born in 1960 in Mabaruma, the Barima -Waini region, 20 miles from the ‘Schomburgk line’ that marks Guyana’s border with Venezuela. My project that culminates with this exhibition in the Director’s Gallery, began with a visit to the Schomburgk Archive housed at the Royal Geographical Society library. Schomburgk’s “Views,” an inventory of peoples and places embedded in the colonial constructs of British Imperialism, inspired me to create my own version. I used the genre of topographical watercolour to reference the sumptuous nature of Schomburgk’s Views, translating my paintings into lithographs to make a limited edition of my own book. Both books are on display in this exhibition along with my paintings. Schomburgk’s book reflects the values and perspectives of Britain as a colonising power, whereas my book is a personal account of homecoming and a tribute to my Warao-Arawak heritage.