‘Speak no evil. Hear no evil. See it all.'

I am ashamed to say that I did not know about Jane Alexander until today. She is one of South Africa’s best-known and most prestigious artists, having  created many Anti-Apartheid pieces throughout her career.

I do not usually discuss Apartheid, because it annoys me (quite simply), but I felt that the above image made such an impact on me, I had to share it. I cannot put it in specific terms, but she hit the nail on the head with this piece, ‘The Butcher Boys’.

For me, the message is in the blank, black eyes that both haunt and are haunted. As the mouths and ears are sealed, the sculpture conveys the following message: ‘Speak no evil. Hear no evil. See it all.' 

I think this was the dilemma that encapsulated the Apartheid era and all other 20th-Century freedom movements that occurred under similar circumstances while the rest of the world sat by and watched.

The wonderful thing about this piece is its duality. Some interpreters have decided the animal heads represent the dehumanised engine that way the Apartheid government, as below. Others have picked up on the anger, the angst, and the inability to speak out and decided the beasts represent the oppressed society. 

One description reads (from Wikipedia):

The work consists of three lifesize humanoid beasts with powdery skin, black eyes, broken horns, and no mouths sitting on a bench. The beasts are devoid of their outside senses - their ears are nothing more than deep gorges in their heads and their mouths are missing, appearing to be covered with thick roughened skin. The artwork represents the brutal dehumanizing forces of Apartheid in South Africa. The animal parts show how people stripped themselves of their humanity and put themselves above others, thinking they were better. The sculpture means it is and should only be animals that would be so cruel to each other and not humans.^[3]