| This series of paintings was made in the summer of 1983, three weeks after I left South Africa. Physical distance encouraged a mental closeness, an anguished bond to my homeland. I felt as if I were seeing for the first time. The hollow blacks and passionate reds, which seemingly squeezed themselves of their own will out of my aluminum paint tubes, emerged from a recent history steeped in pastel pinks, viridian greens and cerulean blues. I attempted to express, through imagery and the various paint surfaces used, not merely an awareness of, but a contempt and outrage for the cruel, immoral and inhumane policies of the whites who governed my country. |
