REVERSED HISTORY MACHINE
Warre Mulder made the work 'Reversed historymachine'. A gumball machine was converted by him and filled with cowrie shells.
Because of their beautiful shape and shine,these shells have been sought after and collected for centuries. In addition, they also had acultural significance, especially with regard to female fertility. Some cowriesacted as amulets and were an important element in the magic of various Paganreligions.
But the money cowrie (monetaria moneta) also has adifferent history. It is known that these shells were also used as currency going back thousands of years. Since the fourth century, the shells have been imported via thecaravan trade across the Sahara in West Africa. The Portuguese adopted thiscustom during the expansion of their world empire in the sixteenth century andthus made the shell money a kind of world currency.
When the Dutch East India Company (VOC)conquered the empire in Asia from the Portuguese in the seventeenth century,the money cowries were also traded by them. Fishermen from the Maldives collectedthe shells and sold them to the VOC branches in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). With thebought cowries, slaves could then be bought in West Africa. An estimated550,000 people were traded by Dutch slave traders.
The shells were also a medium of exchange in theKongo Kingdom. Since the value of shell money in West Africa was much greaterthan in the regions where the shells came from, the trade in money cowries wasvery lucrative. Sometimes a 500% profit was made on it.
Since large quantities of these shells wereneeded for trade, they were also used as ballast for the ships. This increasedthe stability of the ship and, moreover, this ballast was tradable. When atrading ship sank off the coast, all these cowrie shells ended up in the water.For example, shells regularly wash up on the Dutch coasts as reminders of adark past.
With his work, Warre Mulder wants to make asmall countermovement in the ambiguous history of the cowrie shell. Thespectator can buy a handful of cowrie shells in exchange for 10 euros. Thismoney will go entirely to Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS). Anorganization that actively works against modern forms of slavery.