Empire, Large-Scale Bronze, 2024

After extensive production, the large-scale EMPIRE bronze sculpture
has been successfully installed at the entrance of Optenhorst in Paarl, Western Cape.
This monumental piece represents the culmination of months of dedicated work.
Special thanks to Everard Read, Bronze Editions Fine Art Foundry, and Trevor and Otto at the Bronze Age Foundry
for their invaluable contributions to this project.

EMPIRE

A powerful animal subjugated by humankind .
Inescapably majestic and elegant, powerfully muscular in form, with an innate nobility.
This beast bears the weight of our projected nationalism and patriotism,
upholding statues of oppressive statesmen and war ‘heroes’.
Historically, these were the creatures men took to battle,
to fight and die alongside them with unrelenting loyalty.
Yet dignified with their own sense of agency, independent from human quests.

Within this discrepancy between their physical power and their subservience,
they become archetypal symbols for notions of human power struggles,
the horror of war, nationalism and blind loyalty to leadership.

Photography by Mike Hall