Curated by Dr Cat Dunn
With Alberta Whittle, Graham Fagen, Matthew Arthur Williams, and Tilda Williams Kelly

Opening: 1st August 2026

White Ground, Black Water is a research-led exhibition curated by Dr Cat Dunn, examining Scotland’s role in Empire, specifically its deep-rooted but often overlooked entanglements with the Caribbean, and the complex legacies of displacement, racial capitalism, and historical erasure that continue to shape both places today.

Scotland’s extensive participation in the transatlantic slave economy and the management of Caribbean colonies has been marginalised within mainstream historical discourse. Wealth generated from sugar plantations, enslavement, and colonial administration flowed back into Scottish society, funding universities, landholdings, and cultural institutions.

Opening in August 2026, the exhibition will feature work by Alberta Whittle, Graham Fagen, Matthew Arthur Williams, and Tilda Williams Kelly. Working across video, performance, installation, photography, and sculpture, the artists offer ways of seeing that disrupt official histories and invite more nuanced, embodied understandings of place and power.

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

The exhibition is accompanied by a public programme curated by Dr Cat Dunn, beginning with an anchor event designed to ground the research locally, centre community dialogue, and build critical context ahead of the exhibition opening. These events mark the start of a longer process of collective enquiry.