I made this boat for Festival De Ballade. In particular for the band ‘De Lamaketas’ of frontman and festival boss Maikel Harte. The band is the highlight of the fistival line up. Not surprising, because the festival was born from a reunion performance by the band. The band’s most famous song tells a made-up legend about Captain Rooibos. A legendary captain and explorer who has his home port in Terneuzen. He conquered the oceans and discovered many continents and gave them the name we know to this day…
I had the honor of making Captain Rooibos’ ship in the form of a light sculpture. I was inspired by the captain’s name. And as it turns out, with a little imagination the flower of a rooibos plant resembles a boat. A cute boat that also resembles a clog boat. That seemed like the right imagination to me, which in turn pokes fun at the grotesque hero stories and brings everything back into a realistic perspective: a flower boat may not be the ship to really conquer the oceans, but it is the place to imagine all those stories.
Below is another series of photos of the making process of Captain Rooibos’ boat
