Notes

Brett Murray was awarded his Master's degree in Fine Art from the University of Cape Town in 1988 for a thesis project composed of twentytwo satirical sculptures. Cast in resin and painted in the manner of West African colon figures, his sculptures depicted various social archetypes, including soldiers and policemen. "The starting point was to challenge concepts of police and policing by employing inversion where justice, law and order become unjust, lawless disorder," Murray wrote in his thesis.¹ This head originally formed part of a trio of figures that referenced the Japanese pictorial maxim of the three wise monkeys who hear, see and speak no evil. The group was broken up and architect Hans J Schirmacher acquired the "hear no evil" head. A founder of Architects Against Apartheid in 1986, Schirmacher was closely monitored by security police at the time. "This sculpture cheered me on," he says. "Two ears and two TNT dynamite sticks with nothing in-between. The eyes were reserved for peering over fanlights and through keyholes."
^1. Brett Murray, correspondence with artist, 21 August 2016

Literature

Brett Murray (2013) Brett Murray, Johannesburg: Jacana. Page 57.

L Janet Stanley (1993) 'Brett Murray's A Group of Satirical Examining Social and Political Paradoxes in the South African Context' in The Arts of Africa: an annotated bibliography, Vol. 3 1989, New Brunswick: African Studies Association Press. Page 228.