La Vaughn Belle

Trading Post (articulated hierarchies and visible displacements), 2015

The work is temporarily incomplete. The coral stones are currently in transit from St. Croix and are expected to arrive next week. Until then, the plinth remains empty.

Trading Post consists of coral stones reclaimed from the ruins of colonial-era buildings on St. Croix, carefully stacked and displayed in a transparent plexiglass plinth. Originally cut from the sea and worked by enslaved Africans and Afro-Caribbeans, the coral was used as building material for the foundations of so-called “Danish” colonial buildings on the island. Historically concealed beneath layers of plaster, the coral stones are here brought into view, making visible both their material surfaces and the traces of labour they carry.