Home and Away : A return to the south | Melissa Becker

ANU Drill Hall Gallery 26 May - 3 July, 2011

During the apartheid years in South Africa and despite the difficulties, many artists expressed their feelings about their adversity in vigorous, powerful artworks. However, there were no markets or venues where this art could be seen and this resulted in much of the work leaving South Africa. The Ifa Lethu (Our Heritage) Foundation’s mission has been to repatriate this otherwise lost artistic testament by building a collection of apartheid era South African art.

A second collection, Art Against Apartheid, founded in France in 1980 was a rallying point for international artists to create works in solidarity with oppressed South Africans. With this exhibition, Home and Away : A return to the south, works from both collections are juxtaposed to explore the similarities and differences between art created by an oppressed population and work made by outsiders expressing support for those people.

This exhibition was curated by Carol Brown and has been toured by the Ifa Lethu Foundation.