The saint series – An installation of 11 portraits (250 x 80 cm each) digitally printed on matt photographic paper. Charcoal on the floor where the image (nailed to the wall) touches the floor. Click image to view enlargements.
The Saint series formed part of the ‘Searching for a Saviour’ constellation, March 2004 at Museum Africa.
This installation developed out of a reaction against the baby rapes taking place in South Africa. Little ones, as young as 4 or 5 months have been raped, apparently partly because the rapists believe that they will be able to get rid of their HIV positive status by having sex with a virgin. This is not only rape but also murder, for obviously the act infects the baby, and it is only a matter of time before she succumbs to the virus and dies.
Thus the murder of little girls is taking place on a large scale in our country. I’ve been wondering about some similarities with other historical/mythical situations: before and around the births of Moses and Jesus, hundreds of little boys were murdered, as if the collective unconscious were demanding the rebirth of a new male principle. (Or some might say trying to prevent it)
Maybe, with these atrocities, the collective is again pleading for the birth of a saviour, but this time it has to be a girl child. The feminine has to be reinstated.
If such a newly defined female principle were to re-emerge, she would need the space to take form in. Our role (being of the old order) is to create a vessel for the forming of such an entity. Such a mythological space is what I hoped to create in this installation.
The series of digitally composed photographic portraits celebrate the girl child, and the gifts each one brings to the world. The love, hope, humour, wisdom and pure life force evident in these figures deserve respect, honour and celebration.
In the physical installation there would be eleven icons, the twelfth one being formed by the doorframe through which the visitor entered. Thus for a moment the viewer (or the sacred child within the viewer) formed the image of the twelfth icon.
Updated 17 May 2008, www.annisnyman.co.za, author: Anni Snyman
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