For more than 50 years, Sue Williamson's art has shed light on the issues of South Africa. They first campaign against the apartheid state, then question the extent to which the country has made its progress in reconciliation and memory.
But as she prepares for her first retrospective exhibition, the 84-year-old artist witnesses President Donald Trump and his billionaire, South Africa-born adviser Elon Musk: a new target I'm doing it.
After Musk opposed South Africa's “openly racist policies” on his social media platform X earlier this month, Trump signed a cut to the executive order to the country, saying that the government “unjustified” against white Africans They criticized racism and provided them with asylum. We.
The order also said that “South Africa has gained an active position towards the United States and its allies, including denouncement of Israel and not Hamas, rather than the International Court of Justice genocide.”
Speaking from the Cape Town studio, Williamson said:
South Africa filed a lawsuit against Israel at the ICJ in December 2023, accusing Palestinians of committing genocide. In January 2024, a UN court ordered Israel to prevent its forces from carrying out genocide actions, although it had not yet governed its previous acts. Israel vehemently rejected the incident.
“They are trying to set South Africa up as not a reliable country to bring about such an incident,” Williamson said. “You'll see South Africa dragging it through the mud more by Netanyahu [Benjamin, prime minister of Israel] And then playing cards and musk. ”
Before her opening Retrospective in Ijiko South African National Gallery In Cape Town on February 22, Williamson dismissed the US claim that South Africa was expropriating land from white African farmers.
“It's a much more considered process. Looking back at the Land Act of 1913, when black farmers lost their land to white people, it's time that something was done to reverse it.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law last month that allows land to be expropriated with “nil compensation” in limited circumstances, such as when the land was abandoned.
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Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the courts have returned the land to the owners who have been evacuated in several cases. Despite government efforts to buy and redistribute land and some blacks who buy farms, 78% of private farms remain white, according to Stellenbosch University Economists. figure Johann Kirsten and Wandil Sirobo.
Williamson began art classes while working as an advertising executive in New York. However, her first activist art did not come until almost a decade after returning to South Africa with young children to approach her family in 1969.
When police fired on June 16, 1976 at a demilitaristic school that protested in Soweto against the imposition of Afrikaans lessons, Williamson became known as the Women's Movement for Peace Joined an activist group. They demanded to be served together in a segregated restaurant and took the kids to a white-only beach.
In 1977, the group formed human chains to try and stop the informal settlement of Mododer Dam near the airport in Cape Town, but when women had to welcome children from school, they tried hard. failed.
Williamson sketches the demolition of the postcard, accompanied by imaginary meditations of apartheid officials, such as “Don't feel sorry for these people.” One of Modderdam Postcardsany copies of which are copied for distribution have been prohibited from being distributed.
Williamson said, “The lawyer actually wrote to Pretoria and said, “Why did you ban this postcard?” And they wrote back in a rather funny letter, saying, “Well, that's not without artistic merit.” “But it's spreading misinformation because it doesn't explain that these people were here illegally.”
The demolition of non-white houses focused on Williamson's work throughout the 1980s. After his friend Naz Ebrahim was issued with an eviction notice while preparing for the 1981 Eid dinner, Williamson collected tile rubs from the demolition site in the 6th district. Borrowed from Ebrahim, he played the voice and sound from the 6th district, The last dinner.
The retrospective includes new works featuring the same chairs borrowed again from the Ebrahim family, and audio from residents of the 6th district. Williamson wanted the film to be a catalyst for change. “I was asking journalists to reflect on the fact that the government is supposed to rebuild District 6 and absolutely nothing was happening.”
2013 works from the exhibition, There's something I have to tell youfeaturing videos of veteran female activists telling young women's relatives about their apartheid experiences. Williamson said the conversation was still important, adding that she was troubled by hearing young people say they're better under the rules of white minority on radio shows. “I don't think it's just in South Africa. I think it's a global thing in a traumatic society. Parents don't want to load that into their children,” she said. “To find your place in society, you need to know your history.”
Nevertheless, Williamson, who began his career as a journalist, said his work in 2013 probably requires an update. “I'm not sure what young people think today. I probably need to do another job and know.”
