Beverly Buchanan’s exhibition at Spike Island, Bristol, explores improvised buildings of the American south as symbols of survival after slavery. Her small, ramshackle sculptures combine folk-art craft with minimalist forms, memorialising enslaved people and celebrating their resilience, ingenuity and endurance.

The exhibition includes wooden shacks, cardboard churches, painted barns and concrete “Frustulas” made using tabby, a material historically produced by enslaved people. While some lighter works, curation and accompanying contemporary pieces are criticised, the review considers Buchanan’s shack sculptures and weathered fragments exceptional for conveying both brutal history and creative survival.