SPIER ARTS TRUST COLLECTION

This installation forms part of a series of large structural works, with brutish bronze figures placed on decks made of contrasting cor-ten steel. Brown took inspiration for these tableaus from 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” – part carnival, part ritualised combat.

David Brown, who died in 2016, was a South African sculptor. Introduced to the practice by his father-in-law Cecil Skotnes, his work was haunted by memories of police abuses, forced removals of Second Avenue and District 6, riot police and bloated government officials.

Reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch's fantastical satire and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's cacophonous tableaus, his works from the 1980s and early 1990s responded to horrors of Apartheid, dehumanisation, violence and abuse of power – grim realities belonging to societies worldwide.