譚婧
2025
agarwood, clove, white cardamom, rose powder, curry powder, lace, glass panel, wood
Mangrove Art Gallery
An unexpected invitation to exhibit in Cape Town led the artist to explore the city’s colonial past. In the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company forcibly exiled numerous Islamic leaders, nobles and enslaved individuals from the Malay Archipelago and Indonesia to South Africa. This history of displacement, marked by both oppression and resilience, has profoundly shaped the Cape Malays community as it exists today. During the same period, the Dutch also introduced roses to South Africa, cultivating them in the Company’s Garden. Over time, roses became a significant feature of Cape Malays wedding ceremonies, symbolizing beauty, vitality, and cultural resonance.
Cape Town Roses is crafted from agarwood—once a coveted resource exploited during colonial history—alongside clove, white cardamom, rose powder, and a selection of spices rooted in Cape Malays culinary traditions. As the rose petals ignite, the spectral echoes of a displaced history return, carried in delicate tendrils of smoke. This rising vapor holds more than fragrance—it awakens the lingering pain of centuries past, evoking the reconstitution of collective identity and the layered complexities of cultural entanglement.