‘Dog Watch I’ is in the permanent collection at Spier Wine Estate. It forms part of a series of large structural works, with brutish bronze figures placed on decks made of contrasting corten steel. These tableaus were inspired by David Brown watching heavy-weight wrestling matches. “I attended many of these – they were filled with macho bravado, brutal violence, heads were battered with chairs, ring posts and so on – along with an adoring crowd of fans shrieking in pleasure. This was another microcosm of the brutal, oppressive system we lived under.” It is part carnival, part ritualised combat.

David Brown (1951–2016) was a South African sculptor. He graduated from Michaelis School of Fine Art, where he studied graphic design, and completed a postgraduate diploma in photography in 1973.

He was introduced to sculpture by his father-in-law, Cecil Skotnes. His memories of the police abuses he saw as a young boy growing up in the blue-collar belt of Mondeor, the forced removals of Second Avenue and District 6, riot police and bloated government officials all haunted his work, as did the grim realities that were not just local but belonged to societies all over the world.

Reminiscent of the fantastical satire of Hieronymus Bosch and the cacophonous tableaus of Pieter Breugel the Elder, his works from the 1980s and early 1990s responded to the horrors of Apartheid, dehumanisation, violence, and the abuse of power.