‘The Battle of Blood River – 1838’ at Ten Haaf Projects gallery, Amsterdam

Associated media

Opening ceremony with the artist:
Saturday, 9 November 5–8 p.m.

Exhibition dates:
9 November– 21 December 2013

 ‘The Battle of Blood River – 1838’, a solo exhibition by Berlin-based Scottish artist Andrew Gilbert will be opening this Saturday at Ten Haaf Projects gallery, Amsterdam.

Following the success of its previous two Andrew Gilbert exhibitions, ‘The Zulu Queen Stood as Jerusalem Fell’ in 2009 and ‘Austerlitz – The Fate of Empires’ in 2011, Ten Haaf Projects gallery is once again transformed into a museum dedicated to Colonial British Military History, this time featuring works relating to the Battle of Blood River, fought in 1838 between the Boer Voortrekkers and the Zulu army.

Resisting the settlers’ advance into Zulu territory, Zulu King Dingane sent an estimated 10,000 warriors to attack the Trekker wagon laager defended by 470 men on the bank of the Ncome River. Defeated by modern technology, the Zulus lost 3,000 soldiers while the vastly outnumbered Voortrekkers triumphed with just three lightly wounded commando members.

Voortrekkers considered their victory a divine act and sign of God’s protection as they colonized South Africa. Religious symbols thus can be found in some of the works displayed, also referring to mythology connected with Zulu history. A life-size monument to the Boer victory, in the classical form of a rider on horse, stands for both a primitive fetish and an object of religious worship.

Drawings include a depiction of the battle, symbolic representations combined with British 19th-century scientific illustrations, and drawings of nationalist propaganda from both armies. In addition, the exhibition features a number of portraits, namely those of the Zulu royal family and Commandant Andries Pretorius, leader of the Voortrekkers.

The sense of being in a museum will be encouraged by references to Colonial exhibitions from the 19th century presenting Zulus as fascinating, exotic peoples, alongside a sculpture of a Zulu in the style of an ethnographic art object and military museum display, as well as an essay by South African curator Storm Janse van Rensburg written for the exhibition.

Ten Haaf Projects
Laurierstraat 248
1016 PT Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Tel/fax 0031-20-4285885