What Is a Trade?

Donald Fels and Signboard Painters of

South India
Object Labels

When Vasco Found India, What Got Lost?, 2005

Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

In many ways, the society in Malabar before the arrival of Vasco da Gama in 1498
was far advanced beyond anything Vasco would have known in Europe. Malabar’s
spices were coveted throughout the world, and traders of several ethnicities,
languages, and religions worked together peacefully and profitably to bring the
goods to far-flung markets. Malabar thrived—a diverse and rich culture existed,
supported by the wealth that the spice trade produced. Vasco’s arrival changed all
that.

The Portuguese arrival spelled the dilution of local wealth and the introduction of
colonialism to Asia. It also meant the loss of intrareligious tolerance and peace.
Vasco’s determination to punish the Muslim traders forced a schism in Indian
society that has only worsened in the succeeding centuries.

Global Trade, 2005

Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

“My sketch for this painting of Vasco da Gama’s arrival showed a ship coming into
Cochin waters with guns blazing. This is historically accurate and was a big deal—
none of the ancient spice trade had ever before been conducted at gunpoint. In his
first version of the painting, Surya exaggerated the size of the ship and embellished
the natural setting. I liked it, but suggested the scene should be more dynamic and
the waterway more pronounced. For the second version, Surya considerably
increased the firepower on board the Portuguese vessel, which terribly overpowers
the small greeting party. This was artistic license and I loved it—he had a point to
make.” Donald Fels

First Sight, 2005

Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

This painting incorporates imagery from the paintings of India that Vasco da Gama
commissioned for the walls of his villa in Evora, Portugal. Whether Vasco described
these many-headed dragons and human/animal hybrids to the painters, or they
imagined them, they seem to have represented a view of the place congruent with
his vision of India.

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From all accounts of Vasco’s actions in India, he often seriously misunderstood what
was actually happening there. The Malayalam script at the bottom of the painting,
written by Jiju, more or less says what is written in English above: “When Vasco da
Gama found us, he tried neither to change his wrong ideas nor to understand the
truth.”

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Orta, 2005
Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

The text and imagery for this painting comes from a combination of sources. The
illustrations in the corners are from charts promoting personal hygiene among
children—coming in hundreds of variations, the charts are for sale in street stalls
throughout India. The bathing ladies in the middle are from a Portuguese depiction
of Indian women created a decade after Vasco da Gama’s first voyage.

The text refers to Dr. Garcia da Orta’s 1563 book Colloquies on the Simples and
Drugs of India, the
first European book on tropical medicine and generally considered the most
important book published by the Portuguese during their time on the subcontinent.
Garcia da Orta was born just before Vasco’s first voyage and in 1536 came to Kerala
to doctor the Portuguese.

Curiosities, 2005
Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

Ships followed Vasco da Gama to Asia from Europe, often with natural scientists
aboard. They gathered whatever bounty might prove profitable to import, grow,
breed, or transplant. As Europeans began collecting more and more from places like
India, it became the vogue for wealthy individuals to display their collected exotica
from abroad in “curiosity cabinets.” From these early collections, the modern
museum was born. Essential to the new museum practice was the artful display of
possessions however they might have been procured.

Local Knowledge, 2005

Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

This painting is based on the Hortus Malabaricus, a twelve-volume opus detailing

the rich flora of Malabar. Compiled by Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot
Draakenstein, the Dutch Commander of Malabar, the project took nine years and
over one hundred collaborators to complete. First published in the Netherlands in
1678, it is still in print and consulted today.

The tamarind, neem, and turmeric illustrations in the painting are taken directly from
the Hortus Malabaricus. The United States Patent Office granted patents to American
companies for these plants that are grown in Kerala (formerly Malabar). The Indian
activists and scientists who brought suit to have the patents rescinded claimed that
the granting of these patents was licensed thievery, and they coined the phrase
“biopiracy” to describe the practice. They cited the illustrations and text of the
Hortus Malabaricus, showing that, in fact, each plant had been used medicinally for
centuries. After much debate, the patents were rescinded.

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Villani, 2005
Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

“In Cochin, I created a collage using pieces from a photograph of a Villani spice
canister that features a graphic narrative of spices arriving by elephant at the dock
in India and then arriving at the dock in Italy by steamer. I also used other
elements, such as a railroad compartment fan and drawings of the leaves of a
pepper plant. I then worked with Surya to create this painting from my collage.”
Donald Fels

Prince Henry of Portugal commissioned Vasco da Gama to make the voyage to

Malabar to circumvent the Venetian and Genovese stronghold on procuring Indian
spices. For centuries the Venetians picked up spices in Alexandria after they had
had been hauled overland by camel. Procured from Hindu tradesmen, the spices
had crossed the Indian Ocean from Malabar and were warehoused in Egypt in the
care of Muslim traders. The successful Portuguese effort to reorganize the way
spice got to Europe is seen by many as the advent of today’s global trade and
economy.

Pineapple, 2005
Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

The Portuguese transplanted the pineapple from their Brazilian colonies to India,
where it is now widely grown and enjoyed. “From Indians to India” is a reminder that
the native people of Brazil were called “Indians” by Columbus. Six years before
Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India, Columbus tried to sail to India in search of
pepper, missed his target, but nonetheless bequeathed the name “Indians” to the
people he encountered.

Cinemon, 2005
Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

During Vasco da Gama’s lifetime, cinnamon came from the island of Ceylon
(present day Sri Lanka), and was, per shipload, as valuable and sought after as the
pepper for which Malabar was renowned. This painting of cinnamon bark and leaf is
taken from a botanical etching, but the title comes from a spice shop in Cochin,
near the warehouse where Fels and his collaborators worked. Fels noticed that the
spices were labeled in Malayalam and English and that the label for cinnamon was
spelled out phonetically and broken into two syllables as “cine mon.” The phonetic
spelling reminded him of the French words that would loosely translate as “my
film,” which in turn reminded him of efforts by an Indian friend to get a director
interested in making a movie about an American artist chasing after Vasco da
Gama in present-day Kerala.

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Billboardamatic, 2005
Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

Until recently, all billboards in India were hand-painted. In a short period of time,
however, imaging software and digital printing have radically changed billboards
throughout India. Along with the 21st century came the use of vinyl-printed
sheeting that put billboard artists out of business.

Donald Fels notes: “Billboardamatic is the name I have given to the large inkjet
printers that create billboards today. Surya and I decided that the new god in India
is the computer. As with so many of the most vital Indian gods, s/he has more than
two arms—all the better to squish the painter at work.”

Surya Paints, 2005

Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

The signboard painter with whom Fels worked most closely is Surya. Although a
talented painter, Surya was born into a poor family and had little opportunity to
become a fine artist. Instead, he has pursued commercial art, opening his own sign
shop when he was still a teenager. In recent years, because of the impact of digital
technology, he has struggled to make ends meet.

As Fels notes, “The digital revolution arrived with big promises of creative
independence in both the West and the East. For some in India, work in
programming, even at call centers, has been a godsend, opening the door to a solid
middle-class life. But for people like Surya it has been deeply troubling—pulling the
small rug out from under him. This has been the way with new technology—there
are always winners and losers. I am still hopeful that with his creative energy and
prodigious talent, Surya will find a way out of the hole he feels himself in.”

Ships Carry Ideas, 2005

Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

“On the wall near the warehouse where the painters and I worked was a small
drawing of a ‘break bulk’ boom ship, the type that preceded container ships. I
photographed the drawing and gave it unaltered to Surya to render as a painting.
With the photo, I gave him the text, long a personal mantra of mine. Ships carry
things and ideas hitch a ride. The material things represent the embodiment of
thoughts, concepts, processes, ideals, and cultural viewpoints, whether or not
people are conscious of them. Ideas are automatically offloaded with merchandise
and, even more easily than the stuff, get moved about, modified, and applied here
and there. The recombination of ideas in port cities has always occurred
everywhere.” Donald Fels

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The Face of Trade, 2005
Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

This painting depicts three views of traders in front of their warehouses in the
ancient spice-trading port of Cochin. The traders, from left to right, are trading dahl
(lentils), garlic, red peppers, rice, and cloves. A common way of displaying samples
is to lay them out in bowls on the desktop, with samples of the various grades
available. The traders shown here represent an ancient way of doing business.

When Vasco da Gama arrived in Malabar, black pepper grew there, and only there.
In his wake, the colonial powers—the Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English—
transplanted the pepper plants throughout the world. Kerala’s pepper production,
while still outstanding in quality, is no longer a major force in the world of trade.

Weddings on Hold, 2005

Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

For several years there has been a worsening epidemic of farmer suicides in the hill
country of Kerala, which is world renowned as the source of the best black pepper—
and for millennia the only place where it grew. Today, farmers from this region are
killing themselves because falling market prices force them to sell at a loss. Owing
large bank loans for seed and fertilizer, they cannot provide wedding dowries for
their daughters, and feel shamed for their failure to do so. The source photograph
for this painting is taken from a 2005 newspaper article in The Hindu, the most
popular newspaper in south India.

Appetite, 2005
Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

“Painted when Surya was the only sign painter working with me, this painting
established our ability to work together early on. Having conceived of the work, I
was pleased to find a shareware font with a distinct Hindi look on the Internet. I
sketched out a mouth and put an India-centric map inside. As Surya began to paint
the skin, I suggested a bit more green to make the apparition more ghoulish. Taking
the cue, he gave the face animal-like fur, which captures perfectly a predatory
sense.” Donald Fels

What Is a Trade?, 2005

Oil enamel on aluminum
Courtesy of the artists and Davidson Galleries, Seattle

This painting asks a straightforward question, but the answer is not so simple.
What, in fact, is a trade?

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If it’s an exchange, on what basis does the swap take place? What can be expected
by each party to the transaction? What differentiates a trade from a trade-off?
Who determines the conditions of the trade? Is an exchange leveraged by force or
unfair advantage a trade? And what about the other meaning of trade—a way of
making a living, a skill-set put to use in the marketplace? The sign painters
themselves had a time-honored trade that is now defunct. Is a trade that doesn’t
offer the possibility of earning a living still a trade?

Donald Fels challenges us to answer these questions and many others related to
global trade.