III. pray for a life without a plot
The final text by Harvey Dimond, in a trio that unravels real and imagined oceanic journeys in South Africa, Scotland and Barbados
‘Africans born in Africa were said to know how to fly. If when they arrived in the Americas, one legend has it, they did not eat salt, they could fly back home. Salt would weigh them down or turn their blood.’
Dionne Brand, A Map to the Door of No Return
For all the bodies interred in the depths,
Crisscrossed by centuries of ships
Surveying, looting, plundering
The eye of the storm is still watching.
The silk cotton trees are solemn and steadfast
Morning rituals take place by sluggish waters
Hovering somewhere in a blue moment
The dew subtle on delicate cotton tips.
Repopulate this world with those we lost
And for the other dwellers of the door.
*
Harvey Dimond is a British-Barbadian writer, artist and curator based between Scotland and South Africa.
*
This text is one of a series of new writing commissions in response to SALT, Art Walk Projects’ ongoing season of artist residencies. It also forms part of a new editorial partnership between Art Walk Projects and MAP, working together to support contemporary art writing through experimental approaches to commissioning and publishing. SALT culminates in the publication of a book in spring 2023.
