Plantage Accaribo 1913 - 1930

This is Theodoor Brouwers' "Plantage Accaribo", a glass slide with a gelatin silver print. The initial impression is one of ordered nature. Vertical lines of trees dominate the composition, creating a sense of depth. A sharply defined ditch cuts across the foreground, leading the eye into the plantation. The stark contrast of light and shadow, typical of silver gelatin prints, enhances the geometric arrangement. This plantation scene can be interpreted through the lens of structuralism. The carefully arranged trees and the ordered ditch reveal an underlying structure of control and exploitation, turning the natural landscape into a grid. Consider how the formal elements of the artwork—the lines, the contrasts, the ordered space—communicate ideas about colonialism, labor, and the imposition of human will upon the environment. Each viewing becomes a reinterpretation, shaped by our contemporary understanding of history and power.