ROBIN RHODE Untitled (detail from the Dream House series) 2005
28 c-prints face-mounted with Plexiglas on aluminum panels
Image courtesy of the artist and Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York
© Robin Rhode
Much as the rest of us might want to know about the art of South Africa, during the apartheid years and since then, most of us don’t. Sue Williamson’s book brings it all closer. It is a chorus of so many different kinds of voices who have contributed to the visual history of their beloved country. Without prejudice she includes all media and all ways of dealing with the world through art: from old-fashioned painting to photography to performance, from anger to euphoria to humor to illumination.
The fact that Williamson is also an artist—one whose own activist work during the apartheid era squarely took on so many of the social injustices—puts her in the position of not just knowing what she is writing about, but also a protagonist in the story. Recently I visited her studio in Cape Town. All the years she has spent believing in art as a form of social change were palpable. It is clear from her art that the struggle against social injustice did not end with apartheid. I was particularly drawn to her photographs of HIV-positive individuals, paired with their own words, shown written on the wall next to them. One text read:
I, Nelson Masombuka, am HIV-positive. At first it was difficult, because people around me could not understand my position. In the thick of things, I ended up losing my wife. And I lost popularity at the church where I was worshipping. People have, however, learned to accept my position and I am grateful for the support they are giving me. —Nelson, HIV-positive
This work is really an image of change; it is about the transformation that is possible with the evolution of consciousness. A book like Williamson’s, with its inclusion of such a wide range of work by so many artists, plays a major role in this journey. What you’ll find in it is all too rarely in the newspapers and the magazines—but it is vital information.
—Elton John
Atlanta, 2009
A multiple Grammy-winning legend and flamboyant superstar, Sir Elton John is among the most successful singer/songwriters of his generation. In the early 1990s, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF), recognized as is one of the world’s leading nonprofit HIV/AIDS organizations. Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish continue to expand their internationally known collection of 20th century and contemporary fine art photography.