The painful history of the Cape means that trauma is carried in the spaces we inhabit and in the objects that surround us. The farm’s slave bell is one of those objects – a simple object that can move between meanings and contexts.

The artwork stands to personify the bell, to propose that the bell’s ringing can become an echo of the country’s past and the oppressive system of slavery. The ringing becomes a signifier of the slave owner’s voice.

In Brett Bailey’s ’21 Gables’ fictional character Sannie says, “Ring your bell meneer, ring it loud for soon it will be quiet.”

The farm’s slave bell used to rule each day for those oppressed by systems of inequality; this installation reminds viewers of those whose memory is stained by systems of oppression. It brings a different presence to an object that once held so much power.

Tiago Rodrigues is a Portuguese-South African artist living and practicing in Cape Town. His primary focus is on sculpture and the conversation between material and message. He has exhibited work both nationally and internationally, including his debut solo show ‘GOOD GRIEF’ at SMAC gallery in 2018 (Cape Town), as well as his most recent solo show ‘When I Find Out You’ll Be Next to Know” with Kalashnikovv in 2023 (Johannesburg).

Rodrigues has exhibited in several group shows, at art fairs, and has had work included in public sculpture trails and contemporary South African art collections.