HERRING- TEXT RED BY KLIPPAN

In Sweden, the "Great Herring Period" (den stora sillperioden) fell between 1747-1809, and a herring period is when the fishes move from deep sea to the shallower waters near the coast. People from all over Sweden came to Bohuslän's coasts to harvest the fish. Trees were cut down to build new ships and the coast was filled with salters and try works (trankokerier). It is said that the water was so rich in fish that it was possible to catch it by hand. I grew up on the island of Tjörn. When I sailed with my family along the coast in the summers, I saw the traces of the old salteries and try works. The herring and fishing industry was still the island's historic pride.

At school we learned that the great herring period was a golden age for the island, and that the try oil from Bohuslän during these years lightened all street in Paris. But what we never learned about was that the salted fish was also exported to the Caribbean where it was given to the slaves of the European plantation. During the 1700’ Gothenburg was filled with herring salters. Gothenburg was also the Swedish city that worked the most with colonial goods like cotton, tobacco and sugar. Many well known Gothenburg families became rich by trading with goods that were part of the triangle trade.

Here at the Klippan area where we are now there used to be five herring salteries during the 18th century. Glasbruket, that lay on the ground where D. Carnegie & Co sugar mill in the area where 3:e Våningen is located today produced around 5000 barrels a year. Gamla slottet was was located where Best Western Plus Waterfront Hotel is now located. They produced around 300 0barrels a year. Färjenäs that produced 3000 barrels a year and Varvet Kusten which produced 400 barrels a year. The fifth saLtery was Röda sten. It was one of Gothenburg's largest Herring Salteries and owned by Swedens major herring exporter Christian Arfvidson & Söner together with Magnus Ahlrot. In 1772, Rödastens Sillsalteri produced a total of 8700 barrels of herring, which was the record in the city that year. The majority of the herring that the company Christian Arfvidson & Søner's exported went directly to the slave plantations Caribbean. Christian Arfvidson was so interested in the lucrative trade with the slave colonies that he invested in and tried to build his own trading house in the Swedish colony of St. Barth’s.

Sill is a tradition Swedish food that is eaten at festivities as Christmas and midsummer. Ackee and Salt Fish is Jamaica's national dish. It was chosen because Ackee is a plant from West Africa and Salt Fish is said to be what kept the slaves alive during slavery.

SUGAR- TEXT RED BY MOLYNE'S ESTATE

This is my yard. My mother grew up from this yard and now I have my house here. Between 1740- 1839 this land was Molyne's Estate one of Kingstons larger suger estates. At most the were 197 slaves living and working on the plantation. Within a 15 minutes drive drive from my house there were 8 other suger estates . On the whole island you can find 6190 plantations and 600 room distillery noted in the archives

In the 18th century Jamaica had a sugar boom and by the middle of the century the island produced most sugar in the world. To cut a sugar cane you use a machetes. Most of the machetes used in Jamaica during slavery were made of Swedish bar iron. In 18th century Sweden was the largest exporter of iron to the UK that made weapons, chains and plantation tools from it.

Before 18th century sugar, coffee, cocoa and cotton were luxury goods that only the upper class could afford. The slave labor system changed this foods ended up at the common European table. The planters and trading houses around Europe earned loads of money and built houses in their country for the wealth.

It is estimated that about 1.5 million slaves were imported directly from Africa to Jamaica during the years of the triangular trade. A normal-sized palate had about 150 slaves and the large up to 500 and measured 300 acres or more. The slaves would have to be up at 4 o'clock and work in the fields until sunset. A worker would yield up to 6 tonnes of raw crop a day. During the harvest season the slaves also had an night shift in the boiler-house to refine the suger.

Disobedient slaves were severely punished with beating or torture to learn to obey. The slave roads laid great emphasis in disciplining and keeping the level of terror high to create a fear regime to avoid slave uprisings. The mortality rate was high and the life expectant low so there was a constant need for new work force from Africa.

My surname is Whyte wit an h it is an old spelling of White and a common surname in Scotland. Here in Jamaica the slaves were often given their names by their masters. I know where my surname comes from, but I do not know where in Africa my ancestors originated from.

SWEDISH ART - TEXT RED BY KLIPPAN

In 1773 Gustav III wrote the first statutes of Kongliga Målar- och bildhuggarakademien with the French Academy of Arts as a model. Since then, the academy has been divided Kungl. Konsthögskolan och Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna that are still major institutions in the Swedish art scene. Gustav III also founded many other cultural institutions as: Musikaliska akademien, Kungliga teatern ( dagens Kungliga Operan), Svenska Akademien , Vitterhets- historie- och antikvitetsakademien, Kungliga Svenska Dramatiska Teatern. As a king he had a major goal to once again make Sweden a European superpower. Sweden would not only have culture worthy of a great power but also colonies that were a symbol of power and prestige. He hoped, like the neighbor Denmark, to be able to earn a grate income from the lucrative trade of colonial goods and slaves. In 1784 he bought the island of Saint Barthélemy in the Caribbean from France. Two years later the Swedish West Indian Company with a trade monopoly on slave trade in Africa, the Caribbean and New Sweden was founded . Gustav III himself owned 10% of the shares in the Swedish West Indian Company but as he wrote the articles he decided that he would receive 25% of the profits.

The king did not only use art as a political tool he was truly a lover of culture. He wrote and played theater and was a patron of the art for sculptors and painters. Within this project we will will try to investigate if any of the king's profits from the Swedish West Indian Company went directly in to the cultural academies. Or if they were just funded indirectly with the gains that the trade with iron, herring and customs duties on colonial goods brought to the royal house and the country.

This summer I won Hans Majestät Konungens stipendietävling för unga tecknare, which meant a scholarship from the Royal. Academy of Fine Arts. This ax, the herring, the sugar, the meringue and the Rom is bought with the money I received from the scholarship. When I studied art at Kungl. Konsthögskolan, we did not practice our skills by drawing Gustav III old Greek sculptures as in the 18th century. We was trained in critical thinking and how to make contemporary art objects to exhibit or sell. Now we will make a sculpture from two of the main components of the trade.

DANCEHALL -TEXT RED BY MOLYNE'S ESTATE

I'm a grate dancer, a dancehall dancer. The dancehall culture has its roots in ghetto areas around Kingston and Portmore. Dancehall is a Jamaican music and dance. It emerged in the 1980s when the electronic development of Reggae began and Jamaica's political situation changed from a socialist to a right wing government. The dance form of Dancehall originated from traditional Jamaican dances that were danced by the slaves on the plantations. They danced for entertainment, celebration and for religious purposes. It served as therapeutic tool to processed the traumas caused by the slavery. In today's dance hall we do the same thing. By dance we describe and process our living situation and the hard life in the ghetto.
Slavery in Jamaica ended in 1834 and we got our independence from England in 1962. But today poverty and violence is a part of the every day life. In 2018, Kingston was ranked as the 16th most violent city in the world by a Mexican think-tank that has compared the homicide rate of cities all over the world. This reality is often directly reflected in the lyrics and dances of dancehall. One of the major styles of dancehall is Gangster/War. The music describes a gangsters lifestyles with violence, money and gang wars. Within both the music and the dance there is the form ”battle”. In a battle you make a war and fight your opponent with a lyrical gun or use dance step as your weapon.

I have chosen a gun tune and now it is time for us to make a dance battle. It might seam aggressive but it will give us power to keep on fighting to tell the legacy of slavery and strength to push the reparation process future. This will end this performance and the officially start of our project.