Pain reflected in art
Rape survivors’ agony ring out in words and song at Iziko Gallery
ONE comes away from Gabrielle Goliath’s immersive audio-visual installation, This song is for… with a deep sense of sadness, frustration and anger.
The acclaimed multimedia artist, gender advocate, and 2019 Standard Bank Young Artist award winner for Visual Art brings her new work to Iziko South African National Gallery after a successful run at the Makhanda National Arts Festival and the Standard Bank Art Gallery.
In the two rooms of the exhibition space, one is confronted on the walls with the written reflections of rape survivors.
Some are long and some are a mere four lines, but the printed black letters of the accounts speak of the ongoing violence in our society.
As one walks through the galleries, the sounds of dedication songs fill the rooms; songs chosen by each of the survivors. While deep sorrow comes naturally at reading each one of the survivors’ stories, there is largely a sense of triumph at the end, as these individuals chose to fight and rebuild their broken lives.
Rooksana Omar, chief executive of Iziko Museums of South Africa, is quoted as saying: “Gabrielle Goliath has become known for sensitively negotiating complex social concerns in her work, specifically relating to both gendered and sexualised violence… it is important that work like Goliath’s is displayed in public institutions to take a stance against the normalised nature of violence in South Africa; to call for dialogue and action; and to conscientise audiences to the lived experiences of survivors of all forms of abuse.”
As collaborators on the project, the survivors worked closely with musical ensembles to reinterpret and re-perform the songs.
It includes the work of musicians such as Nonku Phiri, Desire Marea, Msaki, Gabi Motuba, Dope Saint Jude, BJIN and Jocobi de Villiers, who present new renditions of such well-known songs such as
Bohemian Rhapsody, Ave Maria and Save the Hero. The testimonies offer as powerful an evocation of their experiences as the music. Karen Howell relates as printed on a wall: “This is a story of rape, yet not of rape but of justice, survival and persistence”, as she recounts her battles to get justice served following her violation by two men.
“You have my rapist in custody. “But it is like a salt pillar. I am being ignored like a stop sign… my soul screams in torment.”
While Howell’s trauma occurred in September 2011, after her persistence in following up, the perpetrators were served justice in 2013. Another survivor relates: “For as long as I can remember my life was always happy. I was a brave, confident go-getter.” Then she was raped, “after that night I became a shell. I was terrified of life itself.”
But she relates that with the help of her family: “I have risen above and am unstoppable… Time doesn’t make you forget, it only makes it easier to deal with.”
Gabriel Xavier was only 10 when raped by a relative of 15 years, according to the written record on the wall. “As far as they were concerned, they didn’t know what I was talking about... It is an emotional pain, much worse than physical pain, something you don’t know how to tell.”
♦ The exhibition is on until April 2020 at the Iziko South African National Gallery. Call 0214813970 or go to www.iziko.org.za.