Herinneringsbord Boerenoorlog: militairen 1899 - 1925

Curator: It strikes me immediately—the stoicism. They march onward, each lost in thought or steeled for what’s ahead, while we, across the gallery, have the distance to see their somber situation. Editor: We're looking at a ceramic plate created between 1899 and 1925, commemorating the Boer War. It’s an engraving transferred onto the ceramic, a sort of printed keepsake from Petrus Regout depicting military men on the move. Curator: A keepsake? It seems a rather…morbid souvenir, doesn't it? Though, I suppose in those days, reminders of valor were essential, even on your dinnerware! Makes me wonder, though, who commissioned it, who was intended to use it? A stiff reminder while eating cake. How wonderfully Dutch! Editor: What stands out is the composition: a regiment is captured in forward march across a desolate landscape that quickly blends with billowing smoke and gunfire from distant mountains, its chaos softened by a textured border. There's this interplay between brutal history and domestic design. Curator: I think the choice to depict them in a monochromatic print, almost devoid of warmth or vitality, lends this an additional layer of somberness. No bright regalia here, only grim faces shadowed by wide-brimmed hats. Is there some tension created between these symbols of the soldier as strong, masculine archetype versus…what do they stand for in this tragic representation? What kind of symbolism were they aspiring to? Editor: Precisely, that austerity directs our eye towards the grim reality of war while also reminding us that representation involves a certain visual economy of expression. Even on such a small, constrained surface. How does one make war digestible? Curator: What an ironic juxtaposition, presenting these figures on the same thing used to serve a meal…I guess you eat up a bit of history yourself with every slice. You swallow a past of victories and, perhaps more pressingly here, one marked by violence. Editor: It presents us with an interesting problem, indeed: that of bringing war home—almost too literally! Curator: Right, so much so, it begs reflection: How *do* we memorialize conflict and for whom, even with the objects we create for ourselves? Editor: Indeed. Even within the quiet confinement of a plate.