SMS/SMU Judges 19.29

 

So Many Silenced, So Many Unnamed

Judges 19.29 “He took a knife and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces.”

 Published in Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry, Timglaset Editions, 2021.

 dedicated to victims of gender-based violence, and to missing and murdered Indigenous women and their loved ones. i am sorry for your loss. 

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 one of the inspirations for this project was the cover art for Klara Du Plessis’ first poetry book, Ekke, Palimpsest Press, 2018.

 

the art entitled Vela Sikubhekile was created by Nandipha Mntambo. “Mntambo was born in Mbabane, Swaziland. In 2007, she completed a Master’s in Fine Art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. Mntambo currently lives in Johannesburg. The work is on display at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA).

 

"Her work addresses ongoing debates around traditional gender roles, body politics, and identity. She works in photography, sculpture, video, and mixed media to explore the liminal boundaries between human and animal, femininity and masculinity, attraction and repulsion, life and death.”

 

After I had made this visual poem, at some point, it dawned on me that I was inspired specifically by Nandipha Mntambo’s Vela Sikubhekile.

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Kimberlé Crenshaw, Intersectional feminism: what it means and why it matters right now, UN Women, 2020