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The Live, Black, Public Art Erasing History is Her Body
Because commemorative male statues relegate women’s leadership to the background
Many major cities in Africa are replete with monuments commemorating her tragic colonial history and the male power — both destructive and redemptive — at the heart of it all. Statues of white imperialists and black liberationists exclude women change-makers from being celebrated in our public spaces, persisting the myth that women are passive contributors to history and unworthy of recognition.
When the multidisciplinary artist moved to Cape Town in the early 2010s, she experienced a personal epiphany that would shape her art and message. Witnessing the many statues of male imperialists and nationalists in Cape Town’s public squares and streets exposed what had been hiding in plain sight: male history is celebrated through public commemoration while that of women, especially black women, is stowed out of sight.
These statues — staring condescendingly at her in public spaces —imposed on her a forlornness deriving from a feeling of being ejected, disadvantaged, and invisible. Where was the woman’s place in public space? Where were south Africa’s matriarchs to look reassuringly on their girls walking by and remind them that they too are leaders?
