Subjective state: recently on view in New York, a two-venue exhibition of contemporary art from South Africa conveyed a refreshing cultural openness 10 years after the demise of apartheid

Art in America, Feb, 2005 by Faye Hirsch

One can only hope that the artists in "Personal Affects," so many of them young, continue to indulge the subjectivity that was this exhibition's special strength. Clearly, "identify" is not a straightforward concept in the rainbow nation, which has a tough history of the codification of people. The curators of "Personal Affects" were clearly seeking flexibility, and they mainly succeeded. Appropriately, The Free Girl, with her layers of multiple personas, was selected as the emblem of the show for the invitation. Awkward and liminal, solemnly straddling worlds, she seems the perfect embodiment of her nation's uneasy self-definition.

"Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in South African Art" was on view at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Manhattan, and at the Museum for African Art, Queens [Sept. 23, 2004-Jan. 3, 2005], as part of a festival of art and performance titled "Season South Africa." A full-color catalogue with essays by Okwui Enwezor and curators David Brodie, Laurie Ann Farrell, Churchill Madikida, Sophie Perryer and Liese van der Watt accompanied the show.