Donald Fels and Signboard Painters of South India: What Is A Trade? October 15, 2008

Northwest artist Donald Fels has been creating work around the connections between trade and culture for over a decade. For this project, Fels took as his conceptual starting point the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama's voyages to India as a spice trader. Fels commissioned sign painters in India to collaborate with him to create thirteen large enamel-on-metal panels that examine the legacy of trade in India and how trade impacts cultures and populations beyond the simple exchange of goods.