About this Installation
Title: With Love S.B (2007-2008)
From 2007 until 2008, my work was about displaying historical figures through different artefacts, referring to the way social events negotiate meaning over time. The persona of Saartjie Baartman, aliassed The Hottentot Venus, lead to a collection of works. I worked from the title With Love S.B., suggesting that this collection was a personal gift of Saartjie. Instead, a set of artefacts is shown that is very much like one you could find in a historical museum.
Saartjie was a South African Nkosa woman, brought to Europe about 200 years ago. Allegedly, she came of her own free will - probably because they told her she would become a star. Instead she was paraded in freak shows (UK), and later she became a scientific object for study (FR). When she died she was put up for display in various parts in a natural history museum in France until the 70-ies. When South Africa was declared independent they lobbied for her body back, and when this happened in 2003, she was ritually buried in her own region. Her story intrigued me, because throughout her life and death she was made the centre of ritualistic social displays. I wanted to create a series of works that would portray her in these different roles, much like a museum collection showing different anthropological viewpoints with collected artefacts.
Isa Tenhaeff
Cambridge, UK, 2008
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