Detail from La Bouche du Roi. Photo: Benedict Johnson. Courtesy the British Museum

A multimedia artwork based on an 18th century representation of a slave ship is to go on display at the Merseyside Maritime Museum from August 4 to September 2 2007, as part of the year-long events programme marking the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade.

La Bouche du Roi, by Benin-born artist Romuald Hazoumé, is comprised of 304 ‘masks’ made from plastic petrol cans, laid out on the floor in the shape of a ship plan known as the Brookes diagram.

The Brookes slave ship, from Liverpool, was used as an example by abolition campaigners to demonstrate the inhuman conditions faced by enslaved Africans on the Middle Passage towards the Americas. Men, women and children were packed on board as cargo, shown on the engraving.

The complete installation from above. Photo: Benedict Johnson. Courtesy the British Museum

The Brookes sailed in 1788 from Liverpool to the Gold Coast in West Africa, then to the West Indies carrying not the regulatory 454 maximum individuals, but a staggering 609 enslaved Africans. The depiction of this provided a strong visual weapon for the abolition campaign.

The installation also includes Liverpool-brewed gin bottles, cowrie shells, spices and mirrors, which serve as examples of goods exchanged in Africa.

Haunting sounds and evocative smells emanate from the artwork, too, whose title (meaning ‘the mouth of the king’) refers to a port in Benin from which many slaves were transported.

Courtesy the British Museum

The black plastic petrol cans have contemporary connotations, as well, as they are used by motorcyclists running black market fuel between Benin and Nigeria. These discarded cans symbolise continuing economic slavery and African political issues.

La Bouche du Roi was acquired by the British Museum earlier this year with support from The Art Fund.

Hazoumé, of Yoruba ancestry, is still based in Benin, where he has recently collaborated in founding a gallery and cultural centre, the Foundation Zinsou, in Cotonou.