Statements

Better Lives is an installation of six projection portraits of immigrants to Cape Town. They are posed before a collaged, black-and-white photographic backdrop of a taxi rank and Table Mountain. The subjects each sit, virtually still, as they (and we) listen to a playback recording of themselves narrating the circumstances of their flight to South Africa from other countries in Africa. Each projection portrait has a corollary work on paper, a formal portrait. In the tradition of African studio photography, Sue Williamson invited the subjects to wear their best for a formal portrait, and pose themselves, and she provided a contextual backdrop. Yet, the scale, the combination of mediums, and the intention diverge from the genre. Juxtaposing the historical format of studio photography (through the print/film stills format) with the updated projection technology (DVD) deconstructs or peels away the formal, iconic representation of the print portraits, and approaches autobiography, since Williamson films the subjects reacting to recordings of themselves telling their own stories.

Sue Williamson is currently showing in Present Tense: Arts of Contemporary Africa, Newark Museum, New Jersey.

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