Joy Gregory and Philip Miller's video Observations: Rose explores migration and colonial history in Jamaican landscapes.

The 2021 video Observations: Rose, created by Joy Gregory and composer Philip Miller, intertwines images of Jamaica's lush landscapes and the Caribbean Sea with phone interviews featuring Jamaicans discussing their migration stories related to weather. This 15-minute piece includes subtitles narrating a harrowing tale of a slave named Rose, inspired by 17th-century botanist Hans Sloane, while Miller's cello score incorporates an Angolan slave song documented by Jamaican musician Baptiste. Gregory's role as a listener fosters empathy through open dialogues about memory and yearning. The format transitions from rectangular to square, moving from Jamaican imagery to London's Kew Gardens, symbolizing colonial histories. It will be displayed in Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey at Whitechapel Gallery in London from 8 October to 1 March. The artists deliberately refrain from naming Sloane or providing specific dates, allowing the past and present to merge. The video's emotional depth emerges from the juxtaposition of oppressive care in the text and nurturing care in the voiceover, with weather serving as a metaphor for complex past-present relationships.