Shining Through the Shadows

Literature

Pippa Stein. (2014) Deborah Bell, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing. Another example from the edition illustrated in colour on page 29.

South Africa: Artists, Prints, Community. Twenty-five years at the Caversham Press, Exhibition Catalogue, February 8 - March 27, 2011. Boston University College of Fine Art. Another example from the edition illustrated in colour on page 31.

Notes

'Shining Through the Shadows (1999) is an image of both horror and hope. Based on Bell's diaries and sketches from the British Museum, the dominant image is of a mutilated female figure holding a begging bowl or holy grail, surrounded by fragments of drawings, including a skull and a woman carrying an AK47.

She is, however, also surrounded by images of spiritual transformation and possibility - the jug is culled from Picasso's Still Life with a Jug (1937) and the eyes on the open hands allude to a meditational breathing position which allows for energy to funnel through them. Through the complex overlaying of images and artefacts, Bell represents what she calls 'history's emotion' - a history remembered and recorded, yet holding the promise of new beginnings.' (Stein, page 28)