If people take away one thing from this exhibition
I would like them to take away an appreciation of
the depth and richness
of South Africa's history and art.
This exhibition tells a long story of South Africa through artworks
from some of the earliest artworks that relate to
southern Africa as a cradle of humankind
to cutting edge contemporary works.
It is important for us to bring these historical and
archaeological periods into the present to explain
why they are important for contemporary communities
and why they are important for a sort of
collective sense of South African identity.
So we use these contemporary artworks
to highlight the importance of these periods for the present.
I really enjoyed working with John on this exhibition
he as an archaeologist
and me with my kind of contemporary art background
have teamed up to look at these two wonderful elements
of the art of South Africa going back to the deep past
but at each stage a contemporary artist
commenting on the five or six discreet periods in the history of South Africa
which we are trying to tell through artworks.
At the introduction of the exhibition we've got two pieces and
they are both made by the same cultural group: the San|Bushmen.
One of them is a piece of rock art that is from either
1,000 to 3,000 years old
it is three metres long
and nearly a ton.
It's an incredibly impressive panel called the Zaamenkomst panel.
On the other wall we've got a piece which is a textile
a quilt using appliqué techniques
and so we have an example where the same cultural group
are creating art just in a different medium
and this time it's textile
And this is a kind of discipline that we have set up the whole way through the exhibition
where we have got historical objects that are kind of being
talked about or curated by contemporary pieces
and contemporary South African voices.
[John Giblin] So if this exhibition was only about artworks
in a very Western gallery orientated sense
we would have to begin the exhibition at 1652
and the European settlement of South Africa.
But we have tried to be more inclusive with what is art
and think about art objects, artworks as things that just have
a high investment of care in them and that go beyond
the purely utilitarian.
[Laura Snowling] One of the objects we have here is a beautifully thin
tear drop hand axe and we actually found out
during the course of the exhibition that it wasn't made by human beings
it was made by Homo Ergasta
which is an early human ancestor
and it's a million years old.
All these kind of things just blow my mind!
It's our first example of manipulated art.
So it's a hand axe
which actually isn't a very good hand axe.
It's too thin
it's too pointy
it would be difficult to hold
and it's lovely and symmetrical
but that's not any use for a hand axe.
It's made out of banded ironstone
which again isn't a particularly good stone to make a hand axe out of.
So this is all kind of showing
how something has been made for the aesthetic
for the sake of being beautiful rather than its utilitarian purpose.
[John Giblin] In my experience of British Museum exhibitions
this is probably one of the most political
but it's difficult to tell the story of South Africa without
engaging in its political history.
It's difficult not to engage in the politics of apartheid
and the politics of colonialism.
These are very difficult histories
and I think it was important for us to take a perhaps more
political stance in the telling of this story.
[Chris Spring] We are looking at really the way in which both
black and white South African artists responded vigorously
against this horrendous system of apartheid.
In 1946 Gerard Sekot
a black South African artist
painted this wonderful work 'Song of the Pick'
but what Sekoto has done is completely reverse that power dynamic
so that the pickaxers suddenly become this extraordinarily powerful
almost display team of pickaxers who look as though they are
about to bury their axes into the head of the white foreman.
But he would not have known I think, that forty years later
right at the height of apartheid in the mid to late 80s
people used postcards of 'Song of the Pick' as a kind of badge of honour
stuck them on notice boards
stuck them on their fridges
if they did have any fridges
and it became a really iconic work.
[Laura Snowling] When I talk about the exhibition the thing
that I really want to get across to people is how stunningly
deep the history of South Africa is.
The fact that we have pieces that date to 3 million years ago
all the way up to the very vibrant and rich contemporary art pieces.
Until I started working on the project
I just had no appreciation
of how incredibly deep and rich it is now.
[John Giblin] I think it's important that people understand
that this isn't just about contemporary art
it's not just about historical art
or just about archaeological art.
It's all of those things together.
It's not supposed to be the canon of all of South Africa's art
that has ever been made.
It's supposed to be artworks that speak to particular moments in time
particular moments in history
that help to bring a greater understanding
of those moments in history to the public.