In this work, Warre Mulder fills a gum ball machine with cowrie shells, once used as currency and employed by the Dutch East India Company in the slave trade. What appears playful opens up a fraught history and revalues the shells as carriers of memory and consciousness.
The work responds to the collection of the Missiemuseum, where cowrie shells in jewellery, clothing and works of art refer to their cultural significance. Mulder's machine contrasts this colonial and economic exploitation with the original value of the shells and asks the question: who determines the value of an object? Even a small object can thus reveal a history of ownership, power and trade.
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