Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art
Live Virtual Auction, 17 - 18 May 2021
Contemporary Art
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About this Item
signed, dated 2011, numbered 2/5 and inscribed with the title on the reverse; a certificate of authenticity from Stevenson adhered to the reverse
Notes
A certificate of authenticity from Stevenson, signed by the artist, accompanies the lot.
This work is from the series ‘There's a place in hell for me and my friends’ (2011–2012).
“The subjects are all friends of mine who are either from South Africa or have made this country their home … A brief description of what I have done to the images:
The colour process used in making these pictures involves turning the digital colour image to black and white, while keeping the colour channels active. In this manner one can manipulate the colour channels and bring certain colours to prominence as greyscales. The red and yellow colour channels were darkened to the point where nearly all information for these colours was rendered as blacks and dark grey. The pigment responsible for skin colour and appearance, melanin, which appears in two forms – pheomelanin (red) and eumelanin (very dark brown) – is brought to prominence in this colour process. As a result of exposure to UV rays the skin produces melanin to protect nuclear DNA from mutations caused by the sun’s ionizing radiation. The damage to people’s skin caused by exposure to UV is thus shown up in their skin, along with capillaries and small blood vessels visible just under the skin.”
Pieter Hugo, https://pieterhugo.com/Text-THERE-S-A-PLACE-IN-HELL-FOR-ME-AND-MY-FREINDS