Notes

The very title of the show Yellow Bile, referring to the bodily liquid, taps into notions of revulsion and rejection that the bitter substance is synonymous with. As Subotzky himself points out, in ancient Greek Hippocratic medicine, yellow bile is one of the four essential elements that constitutes the body. "An excess or overbalance of bile was thought to lead to aggression and anger." Through the aggressive ripping and manipulation of his own photographs as well as found imagery, and the combining of other materials, in these works Subotzky attacks the very objects that his practise as a photographer results in. His aim is to deconstruct them in order to make better sense of what they represent. It's a visceral practise: "Yellow Bile is literally the contents of our stomachs," he says, "What can we 'stomach'?"

Provenance

Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, 2009.

The Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection.

Exhibited

Maitland Institute, Cape Town, Yellow Bile (or Work in Progress), 14 September to 31 October 2017.