Two powerful photographs by South African artist Berni Searle were acquired for Manchester Art Gallery through the Valeria Napoleone XX Contemporary Art Society (VN XX CAS) award, which supports the acquisition of significant works by a living female artist for a museum collection. Searle works with lens-based media to stage narratives connected to history, memory and place. Using her own body, she addresses racism, the commodification of the female body and its power in myth making. Her work connects to universal emotions of vulnerability, loss and beauty.
In wake of was (2014) was created after the 2012 Marikana massacre, in which striking mineworkers were shot at close range by the South African police. In this closely cropped image, Searle’s body is covered with coal dust and positioned as if laid out in death. Her hands hold gold Krugerrand coins, a symbol of the wealth created for the mine owners who stand in direct contrast to the migrant workers suffering under systems of racial, gender, class and economic segregation. The body here is presented as a unit of labour and memorialises women involved in the mining industry.
Manchester Art Gallery’s collection has relatively few works by women artists but many depicting women, especially nude women, created by male artists for male patrons. Through using her own body in her work, Searle regains control of female representation. Although her work comes out of the context of South African histories and politics, it raises universal questions that transcend place and speak to works in the Gallery’s collection, its histories and the people of Manchester.
