PATTERNS OF CONTACT Designs from the Indian Ocean World

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cover image chintz, c.1750 Metropolitan Museum of Art Photographs by Carina Beyer Design by Bianca Packham Š Iziko Museums of South Africa

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Acknowledgments All the objects and ideas on this exhibition have somehow over time arrived in Cape Town from the far away shores of the Indian Ocean and its network.

We acknowledge the contributions of many unknown and unrecorded generations of diverse travellers, workers – both free and bonded – notables and ordinary people who brought a rich

tangible and intangible history to our land. The reach of this mix and its design implications extends beyond Cape Town – the city. Together with our African roots it has shaped a new South African aesthetic: Cape Town World Design Capital 2014.

Thank you to all the generous lenders and collaborators for your contributions.

Lenders to the exhibition Institutions Collection of the Parliament of South Africa Library of the Parliament of South Africa Groote Schuur Estate Department of Public Works Iziko Art Collections Iziko Social History Collections Iziko Marine Archaeology Collections Iziko Archaeology Collections Individuals and Private Collections Manina Baumann Collection Michael Chandler Doreen and Uno De Waal: IN AWE STAYS Collection Goodman Gallery Madame Marthe Hins Collection Kunyalala Ndlovu Hans Niehaus Collection Ellalou O’Maera Dominic Touwen

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right Michael Chandler (1985 -) Untitled, 2014 Pastel on paper On loan from Doreen and Uno De Waal

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Curatorial Team No exhibition can be realised without the willing assistance of many focussed individuals. It is my pleasure to acknowledge those who helped me with Patterns of Contact. special thanks to: Andrea Lewis and Hayden Proud for contributions from their collections.

Esther Esmyol: Curator and specialist consultant to the exhibition Iziko Social History Collections Joline Young: Independent historical adviser and editor Johan Jansen and team: Mural art Nkosinathi Gumede, Enoch Bangeni, Angela Zehnder: Collections and Conservation Iziko Art Collections William Visagie: Installation and Workshop- Iziko Art Collections Iziko Social History Collections and Conservation Departments: Bradley Mottie, Janine van Wyk, Thando Ngcangisa, Hendrina Brandt, Fatima February, Gerald Klinghardt, Wieke van Delen, Lailah Hisham, Tessa Davids Additional installation assistance and expertise: Derek Ohland, Brian Pedro, Noel Fouten, Glen Fouten Iziko Natural History Carol Kaufmann, Joline Young, Thea Ferreira: Research and writing Shameem Adams: Administrative assistance Interns: Thea Ferreira: Candidate UCT BA (Hons) in Curatorship Bianca Packham: Candidate UCT BA (Hons) in Curatorship

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A special note of thank is due to my esteemed and helpful colleagues from the Collections of Parliament: Lila Komnick and Nigel Scholtz; and from the Groote Schuur Estate Collection, DPW: Dr Rayda Becker for entrusting us with national treasures to be viewed for the first time in a public museum.

Thank you all.

Carol Kaufmann Curator Iziko Art Collections

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Introduction This exhibition celebrates the influence of the Indian Ocean World on our visual culture.

The Indian Ocean forms part of a world of exploration and trade that has characterised the area and its peripheries for over five thousand years. As such it formed an axis of multi-cultural contact for people of the Old World of antiquity connecting the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, Persia and the East African Coast with India, China and Southeast Asia. In this way explorers, travellers, sailors and merchants on a quest for fortune or new knowledge, established commercial, religious and intellectual networks amongst themselves and with the coastal communities. This occurred long before such networks were formed amongst the inhabitants of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Southern Africa situated just south of the monsoon winds and South Eastern Zimbabwe, halfway between Europe and Asia, was well placed to participate in early global networks. Archaeological evidence links the empires of the Limpopo Valley in the North-eastern region of South Africa with Arab traders active in the region over a thousand years ago.

The Old and New Worlds were connected through voyages of discovery that began in the late 1500’s. With the formation of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602, regular trading voyages to India and Batavia commenced around the Cape of Good Hope. In 1652 the foundation was laid for

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the emergence of a vibrant – and brutal – new cosmopolitan society that would impact hugely on the southern tip of Africa – Cape Town.

More than just commodities to be traded, the works you see here – all selected for their special connection with the Indian Ocean World – were sources of cultural knowledge and identity as well as inspiration for creativity and ingenuity. Together with African and European roots this rich mix has contributed to the creation of an exciting and fresh post-colonial visual culture in South Africa, globally sought-after for its unique style.

Most of the works displayed here are drawn from the Iziko Permanent Collections. We are also indebted to the Parliament of South Africa and The Department of Public Works ( Groote Schuur) for giving us this opportunity to showcase these rare and little-known works from their collections in celebration of Cape Town being honoured as World Design Capital of 2014.

right installation view of Patterns of Contact: Designs from the Indian Ocean World

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Cape Town – the slave connection Between 1652 and 1838 some 60 000 people were brought to the Cape as slaves during the period of Dutch colonial rule (1652 to 1795) and British colonial rule (1795 to 1838). They came from diverse origins spanning South Asia, Southeast Asia, Madagascar and Mozambique. Their offspring were born here and known as Cape born slaves.

The experiences of enslaved people at the Cape depended largely on whether they were owned by slaveholders who were kind or cruel. Overall, their lives were racked by uncertainty. They were controlled through the threat of violence and / or being sold apart from members of their families.

Slavery was a cruel existence because slaveholders used human beings as their chattels and refused to acknowledge their humanity. It was an existence where psychological reminders of slave status were entrenched into every aspect of their existence. Fear and deference for members of the slaveholding class were brutally embedded into the psyches of people who were slaves at the Cape. Punishments were extremely cruel, in many cases resulting in death.

However, the people who were enslaved in Cape Town formed the

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backbone of the economy for both the Dutch and British colonial governments. Without slave labour the economy at the Cape would not have thrived.

Today the influence and contribution of many highly skilled enslaved people in Cape Town echoes through its architecture, fine antique furniture, costume and cuisine. Aromas of the East and Africa still fill the streets of Cape Town through exotic dishes that have travelled through time from a Cape slave past.

Through this exhibition we acknowledge the contribution of the thousands of voiceless people who were brought to the Cape as slaves and from whose labour this city was built. It is this legacy of slavery that makes Cape Town unique in South Africa.

right Irma Stern 1894-1966 The golden shawl Oil on canvas Dated by the artist 1945 57/33

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left James Ford Holiday Time in Cape Town in the 20th Century in Honour of the Expected Arrival of the GovernorGeneral of UNITED South Africa, 1891-1899 oil on canvas 78/185:L On loan : From Dr RJV Milner in memory of Mr RJ Verster,Mayor of Cape Town 1922-1925

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Cosmopolitan Cape Town

Cape Town is a place of captivating beauty that is home to a variety of people from diverse origins, cultures and religions. Once the exclusive home of the indigenous San and Khoi people, through colonisation and the slave trade the last three centuries have seen Cape Town become one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Under the domination of the Dutch East India Company (1602-1795) the settlement

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at the Cape of Good Hope became connected with not only Indian, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Japanese and Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) people but further afield through the Persian gulf with merchants, notables and artisans from the Persian and Ottoman Empires.

Southeast Asia and Indonesia in particular proved to be a rich source of early immigrants. Many slaves - including some banished notables and political

left Bruce Franck 1907-1970 Bo-Kaap series pencil, wash 68/29:13, 23, 19, 4, 12, 20 Purchased through JT Gregson Bequest

exiles – were drawn from the hundreds of tiny islands that make up the Indonesian archipelago. VOC records indicate that Sulawesi, Bogies, Bantam, Java, Cirebon, Timor and Nias were some of their places of origin. Batavia was the home of the VOC headquarters and a well organised town around a fort, upon which the design for the Castle of Good Hope was based.

The lingua franca at the Cape during

the early years of settlement was a creolised Portuguese – a reminder that the Dutch had wrested the lucrative Indian Ocean trade away from the Portuguese by occupying their forts and strongholds in Goa, Calcutta and other ports along the littoral. All these diverse people contributed a mix of language, genes, ideas, religion and culture that spawned a new creolised African language – Afrikaans – and a new creole identity at the Cape. After the abolition of slavery in 1838 and the termination of apprenticeship four years later, descendants of the newly freed population made their homes on the outskirts of the settlement in the so called Malay Quarter on the slopes of Signal Hill and at Paaperndorp – later District Six. These regions were examples of the diverse and cosmopolitan character of Cape Town, until the Nationalist government earmarked District Six for “white” development and expelled the long-established community. However, the BoKaap was spared this fate and exists today as a thriving reminder of cosmopolitan Cape Town’s roots.

Now home to some 3.74 million people of a wide variety of diverse ethnicities, cultures and religions, the majestic Table Mountain overlooks a city where the sounds of church bells intermingles with the call of the Athaan, the chant of the Hare Krishna temple and the bells of the synagogue.

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Power and Domination in the Indian Ocean

Inspired by a need to overcome the commercial monopoly that Portugal held in Asia; a group of Dutch merchants amalgamated to form the VOC (Vereenigde Oost- Indische Compagnie or Dutch East India Company) in 1602.

They were granted a government-sanctioned exclusive trade licence, which empowered them to dominate trade in the Far East. A group of seventeen powerful officials presided over the affairs of the VOC at their office headquarters in

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the Netherlands.

Cape Town’s strategic position between Batavia, Africa and the Netherlands was exploited by the VOC as a suitable site for their refreshment station. Dutch settlement followed in 1652 through the creation of outposts throughout the Cape, in land formerly occupied by indigenous San and Khoi people.

People from South Asia, Southeast Asia, Madagascar and Mozambique

left Abraham Ortelius Africa Tabula Nova, 1570 On loan from the Library of Parliament Accession number 18116

were brought to the Cape as slaves of the VOC. The economy of the Cape rested on their free labour. VOC power at the Cape was absolute, anchored in a Dutch reformed doctrine of obedience and instilled through brutal means. The most severe form of punishment at the Cape – for slaves and free blacks – was the breaking of people alive at the wheel. Severe punishment for white settlers on the other hand, was banishment from the colony.

VOC rule at the Cape ended in 1795 with the first British Occupation of the Cape. This coincided with the disbanding of an economically flagging VOC within a background of war and changing world economy. However the impact of a century and a half of Dutch domination remains deeply imbedded in our society, evident in the cosmopolitan identity of Cape Town and the population of it’s outlying district.

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Silk from China Silk originated in China in 2640 BC. However, for 3000 years China kept silk a secret, but Japan obtained the formula in AD 300.

Silk production spread westwards across Asia. The Persian Empire was a major producer of high quality silks that were traded along the Silk Route to the Ottoman Empire. Here in the ateliers of Constantinople (later Istanbul), it was woven into sumptuous fabrics, some embellished with silver wrapped thread, much in demand and copied in Europe and Central Asia and presented as diplomatic gifts to Indian and Southeast Asian rulers. During the late 17th C silk production moved to Italy, Spain and France. In the 16th C silk industry reached England and later America.

It soon became clear that the only countries that could benefit from the silk industry were those who were able to benefit from cheap and plentiful labour. After 1600 the silk industry was confined mainly to China, Japan, India and Italy. Lustrous Chinese silks were most sought after by the wealthy classes in Europe. The VOC traded huge quantities of silk from China in exchange for silver from the New World.

In Europe silk was tailored into exquisite and highly valued garments that

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identified the wearer as a person of status. Silk is still regarded as a luxury fibre and has maintained its position of prestige throughout the development of the silk industry.

Sumptuary laws in Europe and the colonies of Southeast Asia and the Cape restricted the display and use of luxury materials by law. Silk was reserved for the privileged classes, thereby entrenching their status. The shimmering silk costumes worn by the extravagantly clothed subjects depicted in these Netherlands paintings convey both wealth and power.

right Dirck van Sanvoort (1610/11- 1680) Couple with children in the park of a castle, 1639 33/13 Oil on panel Michaelis Collection

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Furniture at the Cape Located on the southernmost tip of Africa, midway between Asia and Europe, Cape Town has always been a cosmopolitan city. Since its earliest beginnings the city has been called home by a great variety of people from all over the world. When looking at early Cape furniture it is important to bear in mind the diverse society that produced, cared for and used the pieces.

Wood around the early Cape settlement was in short supply and had to be imported from as early as 1657. Across the Indian Ocean, from countries like India, Batavia, Mauritius and Ceylon, came wood types such as teak, djati, amboyna, padauk, rosewood, sandalwood, satinwood and ebony, while oak and pine where imported from Europe.

The limited supply of wood resulted in craftsmen using what they could get their hands on and this might have resulted in the combination of indigenous stinkwood and yellowwood with the exotic wood types. This combination became a distinctive quality of Cape furniture.

There is evidence that Asian craftsmen were working as carpenters and were involved in furniture making at the Cape. Determining the skills and origins of specific Asian carpenters has proved to be rather difficult and exactly what influence they had on furniture

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production is thus uncertain.

The pieces of Cape furniture that have survived are mostly simplified versions of northern European styles.

Unlike most Indo-Dutch furniture, furniture made at the Cape does not feature characteristically Asian ornamentation. Interestingly furniture made in the Dutch colony of Ceylon, although ornately carved, shows similarities with Cape furniture.

Furniture that was described as ‘oriental’ in style was present in some Cape homes. Whether this meant that the furniture was made in Asian countries or if the pieces were locally manufactured and showed Asian influence, is not clear.

Asian style furniture was not sought after at the Cape, instead land, architecture and clothing were deemed important as symbols of social status. right Unknown maker Church chair Batavia 17th-18th century Ebony On loan from the Groote Schuur Collection DPW GS0920

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left Unknown maker Cabinet on later stand Ceylon ca. 17th century Sandalwood and ebony, brass mounts On loan from the Groote Schuur Collection, DPW

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Islam at the Cape The arrival of slaves and ‘Free Blacks’ from South Asia and Southeast Asia during the VOC era had a profound impact on the character of Cape Town.

Although they originated mostly from India and the Indonesian Archipelago, they were popularly and collectively referred to as ‘Malay’.

‘Malay’ male slaves were valued by the Dutch for their skills as cabinet makers, masons, carpenters, bricklayers and tailors. ‘Malay’ slave women were noted seamstresses who were exceptionally gifted at fine needlework. They also brought with them unique culinary skills and introduced cuisine such as boboties, curries and atjars to the Cape.

Linguistically they influenced the emergence of a new language, namely Afrikaans, and many Afrikaans words, such as piesang and kaparang have their roots in the East.

However, much as their skills were valued, ‘Malay’ slaves were also feared by the Dutch who regarded them as ‘vengeful’. Slaves from Bougies were particularly feared and as early as 1767 there was a proclamation against the import of slaves from the East , although this was never strictly adhered to. Certainly Islam gave ‘Malay’ slaves a psychological bridge out of slavery and through their interaction with often

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wealthy and educated Free Black Muslims, they were able to traverse some of the excesses of the slave existence.

The kramats that form the protective circle of Islam at the Cape bear testimony to the early roots of Islam at the Cape, which coincides with the arrival of South Asian and Southeast Asian slaves during the VOC era.

right Bertram Dumbleton (1896-1966) South African Abdul, 1942 Tempera on panel ISANG 1351 Presented by the SA Fine Arts Association

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Chinese porcelain in Dutch still-life painting The first time the Dutch saw porcelain in any significant quantities was in the form of booty captured from rival Portuguese trading vessels. The porcelain from the Portuguese ships (carracs) was of a type produced for export in Jingdezhen under the emperor Wanli who ruled from 1573 to 1619.

It became known as kraakporselein because kraak was the Dutch word for the Portuguese carracs.

Chinese kraakporselein caused quite a sensation and attracted an eager buying public. It was harder, thinner and more lustrous than the locally produced tin-glazed earthenwares and stonewares, and certainly also more decorative and colourful. Its exotic deep blue decorations executed on a pure white background were distributed all over the surface. The introduction of porcelain furthermore came at a time when a growing group of wealthy middle class burgers could afford, and wanted, a certain measure of luxury, thus ensuring a market for the porcelain despite its expense.

Kraak style dishes and bowls featured prominently in Dutch still-life paintings, lending an exotic flavour to

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renditions of tables laden with luscious fruits and other treasured objects.

Export porcelain became one of the most commonly traded commodities during the VOC period frequently used as ballast to weigh down the merchant ships passing the Cape of Good Hope.

right Georg Hainz (Active 1666-1700) Still-life oil on canvas 33/13 Michaelis Collection

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left Japanese under glaze blue porcelain dishes Arita late 17th century Iziko Social History Collections SACHM 39a, b At the centre of each dish is the monogram of the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or Dutch East India Company).

Such dishes were ordered by the VOC from 1668 to the early 18th century and were for the exclusive use of Company offi cials in Batavia, on board VOC ships and in VOC settlements throughout Asia, and also the Cape.

The central medallion is surrounded by decorative motifs including the phoenix, which is a symbol of wisdom and energy, as well as pomegranates, whose numerous seeds are an emblem of prosperity, and represent the hope of a family for many offspring.

The

decorative

panels

on the rim are similar to Chinese Kraak style porcelain.

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Eastern textiles at home in Dutch colonies

The contemporary silk embroidered textile from Tashkent is a copy of a much older Indian design of the tree of life, a recurring and popular motif occurring on elaborately coloured cotton cloths known as palampore.

A palampore is a type of hand-painted and mordant-dyed bed cover that was made in India for the export market during the eighteenth century and very early nineteenth century. Only the

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wealthiest classes could afford to buy palampore; therefore, the few examples that have survived are often quite valuable today. Palampore were primarily exported to Europe and to Dutch colonists in Indonesia and what was then called Ceylon.

The kalamkari technique was used in the manufacture of palampores, whereby an artist drew designs on cotton or linen fabric with a kalam pen containing

left Chintz textiles On loan from Dominic Touwen

mordant and then dipped the textile in dye. The dye adhered to the cloth only where the mordant had been applied.

This lengthy process had to be repeated for each colour in the design. Small details were then painted by hand on the cloth after the dying process was completed. Palampore patterns were usually very complex and elaborate, depicting a wide variety of plants, flowers, and animals, including peacocks, elephants,

and horses. Because a palampore was hand-created, each design is unique.

The tree of life motif was copied in silk embroidery for the export market. Designs went back and forth from Europe to centres of silk and textile production in Central Asia and India connecting the two worlds in a global network that passed by and impacted profoundly on the settlement at Cape of Good Hope.

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left Unknown artists’s co-operative Silk ceremonial suzani with peacock motif, 2013 Tashkent Silk hand-woven fabric, coloured embroidery silks On loan from Manina Baumann Collection

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Cotton across the seas

After 1600, when the rich resources of the Indian Ocean regions became easily accessible to Europe and the colonised world, new textiles and dye pigments became a lucrative trading commodity.

Access to the blues, reds and yellows and their possibilities for secondary colours such as green and black, revolutionised fashion and costume in the Europe and the New World. Cotton originally from India, absorbed the new bright dye co-

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lour, unlike the heavy linen and wool in current use in Europe. The properties of cotton as a cheap, light and cool fabric combined with the Indian, Chinese and Southeast Asian weaving techniques and designs transformed European and American tastes, fashions and markets up until the late 19th century. Colourful, affordable printed or embroidered cotton textiles became accessible to all classes and indeed democratised fashion.

business. There are rare surviving examples of trade textiles from both the Dutch and British East India Company in the Iziko Social History Collection and the Costume Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Global colour

left Indigo Textiles India Cotton, indigo pigment, resist print Hand printed using 18th c woodblocks and design On loan from Dominic Touwen

Merchant ships on the return trip to Europe were obliged to break their journey at the bustling Cape port which developed into an important centre for the distribution of textiles. From 18th and 19th century household inventories in the Cape Archives it appears that a thriving trade in textiles existed informally amongst residents of the settlement who used their front rooms (voorkamer) from which to conduct

The deep and versatile blue dye extracted from the Indigo plant native to India was in plentiful supply when competing European traders and fortune hunters raced to the Indian Ocean from the 1600’s.

Indigo cultivation rapidly spread to Africa and the Americas accompanied by abusive labour practices required to sustain such large scale export cultivation.

The lucrative textile market in Europe fuelled the Atlantic and African slave trades, ironically creating a further market for both indigo and cotton - the identifying dress of unfree classes in the colonised world. Contemporary observers at the Cape such as Lady Anne Barnard (at the Cape from 1795-1806) depicted servants and labourers in indigo stripes and madras checked cottons – markers of slavery from the Cape to the Caribbean.

Maritime archaeologists at Iziko have recently retrieved indigo cakes and woven rattan baskets in which they were packed for export, from the cargo hold of a Dutch East India merchant ship wrecked along the South African Coast.

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Wrecked cargo Over 3000 wrecks are recorded along the southern African coast, more than 300 alone in Table Bay. Dangerous maritime conditions were a major risk to the success of colonial trading expeditions.

The Chinese export ceramics in this cabinet, were excavated from two East Indian trade wrecks off the Cape Coast – The Oosterland and the Brederode.

The Oosterland, built in Middleburg, Holland in 1685 was wrecked between Robben Island and Paarden Eiland in a storm in May 1697.The vessel had brought French Huguenots to the Cape of Good Hope on a previous voyage in 1688. However nine years later on her return from Indonesia she was wrecked in a storm. The richly laden cargo included textiles, indigo, tropical woods, nuts, coconut shells, earthenware, porcelain and spices. The Oosterland was the first wreck to be archaeologically excavated off Africa.

Maritime Archaeological excavation in South Africa falls under the protection of The SA Heritage Resources Agency in line with the National Heritage Resources Act no. 25 of 1999. right Installation view of shipwrecked Chinese export ceramics

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