Tracey Rose
Caryatid #1: Made for Hoerikwaggo (2017)
This installation comprises of pillars painted in different shades of red, which are situated between the museum's information desk and the museum's café. The title of the artwork references ancient civilization and indigenous historical references. The caryatid is a Greek architectural feature of a sculptured women positioned as a series of columns to support the roof of a building. It refers to the women of Caryae, who were enslaved as punishment during the Greco-Persian wars and used as servants to attend to offerings for the Greek gods. These pillars typically adorn ancient temples dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of hunting and the wilderness.
As the title suggests, Rose’s red pillars are made for Hoerikwaggo, the Khoikhoi name for Table Mountain in Cape Town. The Khoikhoi considered the mountain as a sacred place for their gods and would gather seasonally at the foot of the mountain to perform rituals. Today, the modern architecture of Disa Park, three residential concrete towers, are located at the bottom of the mountain. Popularly called the Tampon Towers, they can represent phallic symbols that invaded and desecrated indigenous people’s spiritual practices.
In this exhibition, the pillars are painted Signal red, Communist red, Nazi red and Socialist red. These colors represent the bloodshed during South Africa’s wars, connecting them to global warfare of the twentieth century. This installation symbolizes the historic connection between the country’s issues around land and displacement.