Strauss & co - Wits Art Museum

WITS ARTS MUSEUM ENDOWMENT AUCTION 39 26 Steven Cohen (b.1962) The Cradle of Humankind – Swartkrans Pigment on baryta coated cotton paper 82,3 x 88 cm AP1 of an edition of 3 + 2AP 2011 Donated by the artist R20 000 – 30 000 Born and raised in South Africa, Cohen is now based in Lille in France, where he has developed an international reputation as a highly challenging and innovative performance artist. This regal portrait of Nomsa Dhlamini is a still from the video created for a multimedia performance titled Cradle of Humankind . The sitter, Cohen’s childhood nanny, now muse, leading lady and collaborator in the performance piece is photographed against the backdrop of Swartkrans in the Cradle. Many of the world’s oldest hominid fossils have been found here and it has also yielded evidence of humans’ early taming of fire. The image of Dhlamini, Cohen’s ‘antiquated seer’accompanied by 1930’s lunettes de lit , toy spaceship and the mourning cape suggest the continuum from human evolution to technological revolution. Her heroic presence seems to transcend the many complex and painful issues of identity, race, and colonialism that the artist addresses.  LSC

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