Bloodlines and Bloodstains
This work is a tribute to the humour and strength of my great grandmother, who spent two years in a British concentration camp during the Anglo Boer war in South Africa 1899-1901. I use the stories that she told me to try and break through the mythology of history.
The version that we were taught at school in the apartheid era and what the white right wing wilfully believes is very different to what has been uncovered. At least as many Africans were interred as whites. Twenty two thousand white children and twenty thousand African children died. To this day, Britain and its colonies deny the havoc they wrought while conservative Afrikaners use descriptors such as ‘murder’, ‘death camps’, ‘holocaust’. Neither are right.
Many New Zealanders are unaware of the South African war or New Zealand’s, and in particular, Dunedin’s involvement in it. Based on a vivid dream about my great grandmother, I knew I had to pass on her stories of the everyday from inside a British concentration camp during the war.
These works are is constructed entirely from recycled materials, abject and imprinted with the lives and memories of others. These materials such as old woollen blankets, discarded clothing and
toys,add layers of meaning to the stories.
The version that we were taught at school in the apartheid era and what the white right wing wilfully believes is very different to what has been uncovered. At least as many Africans were interred as whites. Twenty two thousand white children and twenty thousand African children died. To this day, Britain and its colonies deny the havoc they wrought while conservative Afrikaners use descriptors such as ‘murder’, ‘death camps’, ‘holocaust’. Neither are right.
Many New Zealanders are unaware of the South African war or New Zealand’s, and in particular, Dunedin’s involvement in it. Based on a vivid dream about my great grandmother, I knew I had to pass on her stories of the everyday from inside a British concentration camp during the war.
These works are is constructed entirely from recycled materials, abject and imprinted with the lives and memories of others. These materials such as old woollen blankets, discarded clothing and
toys,add layers of meaning to the stories.