‘Contemplation: The Working Farm’ speaks to the history of work on farms at the Cape. It looks at past and present labour, and how one has an impact on the other. The project focuses on the working wine farm and those who laboured on it in the past and present. Farm workers are often unrecognised and unacknowledged in the farm’s success despite their intense labour required to produce even a single bottle of wine.

This project acknowledges those who have kept and continue to keep the farm running throughout the years. As there is little information on the people who worked on the farm in the past, ‘ghosts’ will be used to reimagine and connect with those who once lived and worked here. Current work and workers are also acknowledged and integrated into the landscape of the farm, solidifying their connection and relation to the land.

Cape Town artist Gina-Rose Bolligello’s current work centres around hauntology and colonial history of the Cape, highlighting untold historical narratives as a means to educate audiences and keep the memory and work of colonised people alive. In areas where there is a lack of visual documentation, she uses ‘ghosts’ to imagine the lives that once were and which are perhaps still present in alternative forms. She makes use of various media including photography, video, and printmaking. Bolligello was awarded the Simon Gerson Prize and the Director’s Award for her final body of work at Michaelis School of Fine Art.