“There was a plantation in Jamaica and it was haunted by a lady called Annie”

“who had a husband called Robert and she had another husband called Robert and the reason”

“he was having an affair with a worker. Um so Annie strangled the worker”“no Robert strangled, strangled Annie”

“There was a plantation in Jamaica and it was haunted by a lady called Annie”

“who had a husband called Robert and she had another husband called Robert and the reason”

“he was having an affair with a worker. Um so Annie strangled the worker”

“why she split up with this Robert”

“ROUNd ARE wAy ThE biRdS SiNG fOR yOU”, audio installation, steel, tweeters, wires & wood Tent festival 2011, ‘Thankyou & Goodbye PT 2: Truman brewery, brick Lane London

2011 audio installation, steel, tweeters, wires & wood

Taking it’s cue from the a symbolic motto ‘Out of many one people’. The piece explores the rich history of Jamaica and the prevalence placed on storytelling.

The audio that the audience hears are the songs of 8 participants who were asked to sing transcripts from a previous performance that ex-plored the the patterns that emerge whena legend was passed along a transmission chain. The participants were instructed to emphasize the words that were carried along the transmission chain the furthest to create a heightened and monu-mental version of the narrative.

Purcell built this audio construction using metal & wood, perched on top of the metal stands rests the tweeters that await their moment when they collectively join in song to create an amphitheatre. This piece explores the the event, performance within the everyday and the audience.

“OUT Of mANy ONE PEOPLE”, audio installation, steel, tweeters, wires & wood , ‘Thankyou & Goodbye PT 1: Kingston University, Knights Park

Rose hall once dominated as a vast sugar cane plantation. which was 6,000 acres of landwith over 2,000 slaves working on itThe infamous legend of Annie may Palmer surrounds ‘Rose hall’ and is widely known and implicitly believed in Jamaica. She was a woman of sin-ister beauty, who was murdered by her slaves as retribution for her wicked-ness.Annie Palmer was born in England in 1802 To an English mother and irish father. her parents moved to haiti when Annie was ten years old. Shortly after the parents contracted yellow fever and died.Annie was then adopted by her nanny A voodoo priestess who taught her everything about witch craft and Obeah magic. when Annie was 18 years old, her nanny died and she travelled to Jamaica in search of wealthy hus-bands, where she met and married John Rose Palmer owner of Rose hall.during her reign as mistress of the plantation, Annie did away with John Rose Palmer, as well as two more husbands and countless slave lov-ers. it is said that Annie poisoned John Palmer after he caught her with a slave lover. Annie would place the rooms in which the husbands died under quarantine and have the slaves bury the bodies near the sea. She would then have the slaves killed on the way back to the house. hence the term in Ja-maica ‘dead man waking’The trouble began after the death of her three husbands, when Annie fell in love with Robert Rutherford a bookkeeper from England. She was in love with him, but Robert was in love with milliscent a freed black slave (who was his housekeeper). milliscent was the granddaughter of Taco A-n-n-i-e’s slave lover. when Annie found out they had a relationship going, Annie cast a spell on milliscent and she died within one week.for the revenge Taco came up via the secret passage, went up to her bed-room made love to her and strangled her to death. The night she was mur-dered the slaves burnt all her personal belongings. To this day there are those who claim to see her ghost wandering the halls of the Great house.

This is a story of a plantation called Rose hall. The plantation is based in Jamaica, and it was a plantation that was very much to do with the history of Annie that was born in the early 1800’s to an English mother and irish father. Annie was a woman of implicit beauty and an extreme temptress seems.And when her parents died she was adopted by her nanny, who then looked after her and when she died, um she was married to a man called John Palmer who was the owner of the plantation in Jamaica, she had a lot of slaves who she treated very well or really badly. but she was treating them very badly because she had two other marriages and when they died, she used to, some of them were dying at sea, and were buried in, in, the lines of the Rose hall Plantation.Later on Annie fell in love with a man who was a bookkeeper ah called Robert, Robert Rutheruss, who was then in love with one of the planta-tion slaves. when Annie found out that he was in love with her, she cast a spell and the woman died over within one day, an then when Robert found out about the spell he went and befriended Annie for one night and after he slept with her he strangled her and since then they say that the ghosts of the house of Rose hall Planta-tion are still alive and working.

This is the story of a woman called Annie who lived in um Ja-maica, and when she was young she was brought up…her parents died when she was young and she was brought up in this Rose hall plantation. And then when her nanny died, she, and she grew up she married someone i think called John Rose Palmer. She was a very beautiful woman a temptress and she had lots of slaves on this plantation who she treated very badly apparently. And when they all died they were buried at sea! And then afterwards she got married to another guy that was also called Robert

but she discovered that he was in love with another slave, one of her slaves. So she cast a spell on the him, a spell on the woman, that he was in love with, so that she died. And when the man found out about this he got with her again for a day and then he strangled her in a fit of rage. So there are stories that there are ghosts around the plantation

This is a um story um about a haunted Rose hall plantation in Jamaica. The plantation has a ghost called Annie many other ghosts um here as well. Annie who used to run the plantation wanders round upset. Um she ahhh the history of Annie is that when she was very very young her parents passed away, she was brought up by her nanny. And when she become a young woman she ran the planta-tion and married a man called Robert Palmer. Now she…i hear she was a bit of wicked lady, she was not very… she was bad to the slaves on the plantation um and some how going back to her husbands its sort of un-known whether he passed away or left. but she then married again, she married another man called Robert um this, this second husband fell in love with one of the slaves, when Annie found out about this she was enraged, she cast a spell on the… um her husbands lover and the um the lover disappeared under the spell. And her husband came back to her, had a night with her, but in realising she cast the spell um strangled her u so her ghost now lives on roaming the plantation in Jamaica. which are of her ghosts that are roaming around the plantation. Ok so it’s a story about a plantation in Jamaica

that was haunted. Um it was haunted by a lady called Annie who ahh was a sort of witch um she became a witch because she found ahh her second her hus-band Robert Palmer no that was her first husband, but she found her second husband who named Robert aswell sleeping with one of the workers. So urr there are rumours that she cast a spell on one of the with that worker and next the worker had disappeared. Um and she had one last night with Robert and he, apparently strangled her and that’s how she became haunt, she died and started haunting the plantation.

So there is this Jamaica plantation and it’s haunted by this lady called Annie which is also a witch. She was married to a guy named Robert and she divorced him and married again to another guy called Robert and the rea-son why she became a witch was that because she found out that Robert was….slept with a worker. So she like cast a spell on the worker and um, the next day Robert like strangled her and she be-came…strangled her, so that’s how she is haunting the plantation in Jamaica.

There was a plantation in Jamaica and it was haunted by a lady called Annie who had a husband called Robert and she had another husband called Robert and the reason why she split up with this Robert is because he was having an affair with a worker. Um so Annie strangled the worker, no Robert strangled, strangled Annie and that’s how Annie became the witch of Jamaica.

Ok um, so this is a story about a plantation in Jamaica and about a… it’s haunted by a woman who used to run the plantation called Annie um she wasn’t a very nice woman, she wasn’t very nice to the slaves. Um and she was married to a bloke called Robert Palmer. Um and then um yeah those two were married and then Robert Palmer it’s not sure whether he died or went away. And then she um she married another bloke called Robert and he actually had an affair with one of the workers, and she wasn’t very happy about it, Annie wasn’t very happy about it. And she um cast a spell on the worker um and then the worker disappeared and Robert had another night with Annie and he realised that she cast a spell on the worker and he strangled her to death. And she’s now haunting the plantation in Jamaica.

Ok so it’s a story about a plantation in Jamaica that was haunted. Um it was haunted by a lady called Annie who ahh was a sort of witch um she became a witch because she found ahh her second her hus-band Robert Palmer no that was her first husband, but she found her second husband who named Robert aswell sleeping with one of the workers. So urr there are rumours that she cast a spell on one of the with that worker and next the worker had disappeared. Um and she had one last night with Robert and he, apparently strangled her and that’s how she became haunt, she died and started haunting the plantation.

“OUT Of mANy ONE PEOPLE”, audio installation, steel, tweeters, wires & wood , ‘Thankyou & Goodbye PT 1: Kingston University, Knights Park

Published by Chantelle may Purcell© Chantelle may Purcell, 2011

EdUCATiON:

2010-11 mA European Arts Practice, Kingston University2007 bA (hons) 2:1 fine Art (2007) University for Creative Arts at Canterbury2004 bTEC diploma, fine Art/fashion (2004) Chelsea College of and design2003 A Levels, business Studies, Art & design, biology - Prendergast School2001 AS Level, English Literature – 2002, 9 GCSE’s – Prendergast School

SOLO EXhibiTiONS:

2009 ‘’Narratives al fresco’’ Artsbar, Camberwell, London, 2009 2009 Narratives al fresco, Performance event, (brockley mAX festival) 20092008 Currency: Part Two ‘Close but No Cigar’ 2008, Cor blimey Gallery2008 Currency, ‘Shifting Trades’ London, part of deptford X festival 2008, installation/exhibition in a derelict shop,

GROUP EXhibiTiONS:

2011 Thankyou & Goodbye, Truman brewery, brick Lane, London, 20112011 Thankyou & Goodbye, Knights Park, Kingston Upon Thames, 20112011 work in Progress, Core Gallery, London, 20112010 bleedin’ heart Exhibition, Cor blimey Arts, blue dog Gallery, brighton2010 The Truth is Rarely Pure and Never Simplle, Nolia’s Gallery, London2009 All dem All dem Summer Show, Cor blimey, deptford2008 ‘Narratives’12 artists, deptford2007 ‘into the Unknown’ – final degree show, UCA, Canterbury2006 ‘is this a City i know?’, Cor blimey Gallerydeptford x festival 2006

AwARdS:

mac Egon Award, 2008 “commended”

COLLECTiONS:

Private collector: Verry Construction, Canary wharf, London

bLOG:

http://coregalleryinterviews.blogspot.com/