Sue Williamson’s First and Last

Cape Town-based artist Sue Williamson works across video, archival photography, and mixed media installations to interrogate themes of memory and identity formation. Williamson, who emigrated from the UK to South Africa in 1948, is perhaps best known for screen-printed portraits of South African women who were influential in the liberation struggle,  iconic works that were distributed as postcards throughout the 1980s.

But Williamson’s work transcends the apartheid era with ever-evolving perspectives on South African history. She draws on a host of literary and archival references for her latest solo show, ‘Turning the Pages’ at Oude Leeskamer, Stellenbosch. At the end of the month, her work will feature in the group show, ‘A League of Nations’, at the Art Students League of New York Gallery. Despite a busy schedule, Williamson found time to share the first and last images on her camera roll.

First: 119 Deeds of Sale installation at the Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, 12 September, 2018

The scene here is a kitchen in the Cape Town Castle, a room where enslaved people once laboured in the service of the Dutch East India Company, 17th century colonisers of the Southern tip of Africa. Records kept in the Cape Town archives showed that many of the enslaved people, some as young as eight years old, had been brought from India. Each of the shirts and cotton wraps of this piece is inscribed with the details of one sale. From Cape Town, the work travelled to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in the south of India, where in a symbolic re-enactment of return, the clothes were washed and rehung on washing lines overlooking the sea. 119 Deeds of Sale will next be installed in the Van Loon Museum in Amsterdam in 2024 in an exhibition entitled Home and the World.

Last: My studio in Salt River, Cape Town, 28 September, 2023

This is my favourite room in all the world: my studio, at the best time of day, the afternoon, when sunlight streams in through the windows. If you look through the window on the left, you will see the spine of Lion’s Head mountain, and later on, there will be a spectacular sunset. Under the other window is a chaise longue which once belonged to my great grandmother – the perfect spot for an afternoon nap. Look around, and you’ll see books, tools, a row of old CDs from when that was how one stored images, brushes, inks, knives.., and out of shot, two cabinets of old drawings and prints and shelves of sturdy storage boxes with labels like TAPE, ENGRAVING DRILL, OLD SKETCH BOOKS etc. Everything I need is here.