Visualizing Apartheid: Re-Framing Truth and Reconciliation through Contemporary South African Art

Abstract

Amid the South African government’s 1985 declaration of a state of emergency, as violent struggle against the system of racial oppression known as apartheid was intensifying, artist Jane Alexander made a statement—a chilling, perverse, and unforgettable statement in the form of three, life-size sculptures. Aptly titled Butcher Boys and permanently housed in the South African National Gallery, this assemblage of creatures elicits a visceral sensation of fear and repulsion. They were men, but have transformed into demons; they are human, but simultaneously not human, or at least not anymore. Evoking the larger societal context in which apartheid flourished—a racist, overly militarized, and masculinized regime sustained by authoritarianism and the routine use of violence—Alexander’s piece lends stark visualization to the insidious ways in which the apartheid system distorted the humanity of its perpetrators. (See Plate 7.1.)