Sue Williamson, born 1941, England (active South Africa) Search this
Medium:
Mixed media
Dimensions:
Dimensions variable
Type:
Sculpture
Geography:
South Africa
Date:
1993
Label Text:
"The Last Supper Revisited" tells the story of the destruction of the District Six community, in Cape Town, South Africa. The social life of the District was multiracial from the time of its beginnings in the 19th century until it was demolished to create a "white area" in the 1970s and 1980s, in accordance with apartheid legislation which forbade people of different races from living together. This program of eviction and destruction affected the lives of over 65,000 people, mostly of mixed race, Indian, and African descent.
The artist invites us to share in the last supper for the Muslim holiday of Eid al Fitr, celebrated by the Ebrahim family of District Six, one of the last families whose house was leveled by bulldozers.
The three backlit boxes suggest house windows through which we glimpse scenes of family life on this bittersweet occasion. We hear the distant sounds of the local muzzein calling the faithful to prayer, the insidious and ubiquitous drone of the bulldozers, and the eyewitness accounts of the destruction of home by local residents. A subtle sense of incense envelops us and welcomes us into the home.
The artist has set the table for this intimate feast with a meal made up of multiple resin blocks that contain the scraps of precious and mundane objects to document this doomed community. The encased remnants of a vibrant community life in the District are treated as witnesses to and survivors of racist apartheid system. The installation as a whole highlights the power of art to embody social action, shared memory, and forgotten histories.
Sue Williamson initially visited the site of the Ebrahim's razed house in 1980 and created an installation work, "The Last Supper," from large bits of rubble (windows, doors, books and the like). Twelve years later she returned to the original site only to find little had changed. For "The Last Supper Revisited," the artist was able to collect new, smaller bits of detritus to encase and display.
Description:
Large blackened light box in the form of a round dinner table to which are affixed multiple translucent resin blocks. Each of these blocks, lit from below, contains a fragment from daily life in District Six: bits of linoleum tile, shards of pottery, precious china, a doll's shoe, a silver spoon. Three back-lit lightboxes that suggest house windows with orange blinds pulled down (made of Perspex), adorn the walls of the installation, exhibiting photographs of the Ebrahim family's last supper. In the background an audio-track plays, documenting memories of District Six residents, inter-dispersed with sounds of bulldozers, a muzzein, and the songs of a popular District singer. A smell of incense permeates the space.
Exhibition History:
I Am: Contemporary African Women Artists, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 20, 2019 - April 3, 2022
Insights, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., February 27 to November 28, 2004
Recent Acquisitions and Promised Gifts, National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 18, 2002-January 5, 2003
The Last Supper Revisited, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 11-January 28, 2002
Published References:
Hornbeck, Stephanie E. 2009. "A Conservation Conundrum: Ephemeral Art at the National Museum of African Art." African Arts 42 (3), p. 56, no. 9.
Content Statement:
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Image Requests:
High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
Credit Line:
Purchased with funds provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, Michigan
