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Zulu Girl 353 x 500 pixels, 45 Kb
Slegs Vir Almal: Seaforth Cape 841 x 500 pixels, 76 Kb
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The figurative elements are transcriptions in paint of fragments of postcards I bought in South Africa last year. I choose the postcard because it is already provenly acceptable as a reality to the public. Fetish, totem and mask are not the prerogative of the black African; the English, the Germans and the Euroafricans of this republic all have their share; hence the set of African Masks whose titles are the titles of their respective postcard sources (although 'Rosebank' is slightly altered to remind the viewer of the end of Citizen Kane); hence the emblem of litterbin and rainbow and the totem of the beach notice (with a figure seen in an archetypal attitude of disgrace); hence the joined fragments to imply endless stretches of land and sea and sky. These are emblems in the manner of the 16th and 17th century emblem books of Quarles, Alciati etc. Works and Texts (1992), p. 58-62. |