SH 2013/34

Boat-shaped slip-cast porcelain vessel. Figures or putti are holding up the elongated top section of the vessel. The top of the vessel is painted in cobalt blue under a transparent glaze with enslaved people inside a slave ship.The vessel is an acknowledgement of the contribution of the enslaved to the achievements of the colonial Cape. The historical Anton Anreith Cloete Cellar frieze at Groot Constantia served as inspiration. The frivolous sentimentality of the putti could not be further removed from the suffering of the enslaved that toiled here. Present-day society has not changed much, prompting the idea to make an association between gravy trains/gravy boats, and slave boats, and how society continues with conspicuous and insensitive displays of opulence.