Crossing Over Master of Visual Arts exhibition Adelaide Central School of Art Gallery 2007
Crossing Over exhibition - work made soon after my arrival in Australia
I was born in Africa during a time when the African people were working towards liberation from Colonial rule. I always felt at odds with the role of oppressor; a role attributable to me because of the colour of my skin. I did not choose to be born a white girl in black Africa. My position damned me with the weight of guilt and complicity. If I did something about my position, many alienated me. If I did nothing, I was wicked, within a wicked system. Either way I faced the dilemma of the self and the other and the loneliness of being a stranger in the country of my birth. I have often found myself living in contradictory and inhumane circumstances. I fled war torn Zimbabwe in 2003 and settled in Australia.
This work is about witnessing moments in history at the wrong or the right time, and of being classified the wrong or the right colour. The legacies of these political positions have conditioned the transitions that have shaped my life and my work.
I was born in Africa during a time when the African people were working towards liberation from Colonial rule. I always felt at odds with the role of oppressor; a role attributable to me because of the colour of my skin. I did not choose to be born a white girl in black Africa. My position damned me with the weight of guilt and complicity. If I did something about my position, many alienated me. If I did nothing, I was wicked, within a wicked system. Either way I faced the dilemma of the self and the other and the loneliness of being a stranger in the country of my birth. I have often found myself living in contradictory and inhumane circumstances. I fled war torn Zimbabwe in 2003 and settled in Australia.
This work is about witnessing moments in history at the wrong or the right time, and of being classified the wrong or the right colour. The legacies of these political positions have conditioned the transitions that have shaped my life and my work.