Trophy

Trophy, 2024, bronze cast of a ginger root, timber plinth. 190 x 40 x 40cm  

Trophy explores the legacies of colonisation in South-East Asia, focusing on the historical and ongoing impacts of the colonial spice trades. Informed by Amitav Ghosh’s book, The Nutmeg’s Curse, this work reflects on how violent conquest over land, people and plants was pursued throughout Asia by Dutch and British colonial powers.

The sculpture comprises of a comically oversized plinth supporting a humble ginger root cast in bronze. This exaggerated display highlights the absurdity of colonial conquest, playfully unsettling the ways violent histories have been monumentalised and retold.

The plinth draws on the visual language of museums and art history, acting as a metaphor for the frameworks which record history. Within my practice, structures become a way of questioning how memories, objects, and inherited histories are held and arranged.