Object Details
- Created by
- Howardena Doreen Pindell, American, born 1943
- Caption
- Howardena Pindell created Separate But Equal in protest of apartheid—South Africa’s rigid, racially segregated caste system created by the country’s white citizens. It established and maintained wealth and privilege while depriving the black majority of their civil, economic, and political rights. The system’s implications are revealed through the use of color, words, and found objects. In the white section, Pindell incorporates words such as Barbaric, Parasitic, and Profit; in the middle section, terms include Endless Labor, Pass Book, and 0 Votes; the lower , ripped from and tenuously reconnected to the rest of the canvas, contains the words Malnutrition, Death, and Torture. Each section, combined with the rhinestones, nails, and painted gold frame, deftly reveals the tension, danger, and violence prevalent during this dark era.
- Description
- A mixed media artwork referencing apartheid in South Africa. The work features a black and white canvas studded with rhinestones; a white strip forms a horizontal plane atop a black field. The canvas has been ripped and then sewn together, leaving a diagonal gash along the right side of the work. Words have been superimposed on the black field using black vinyl tape: Apartheid, Camps, The Mines, Disappearances, Pass Book, Endless Labor, 0 Votes, Detention, Interrogation, SOWETO. Words have been added to the white part of the canvas using white vinyl tape: Indifference, Separate State, Cruel, Profit, The Bomb, Barbaric, Killers, Comfort, Parasitic, Apartheid. There is a wooden frame around the plaster with nails protruding out from it.
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- 1987
- Object number
- 2012.80
- Restrictions & Rights
- © 1987 Howardena Pindell
- Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
- Type
- multimedia works
- Medium
- acrylic, pressure-sensitive tape, rhinestone, wood, metal, silicone, zircon, canvas
- Dimensions
- H x W x D (painting): 24 × 21 1/2 × 3 in. (61 × 54.6 × 7.6 cm)
- H x W x D (frame): 30 × 28 × 7 in. (76.2 × 71.1 × 17.8 cm)
- Place depicted
- South Africa, Africa
- See more items in
- National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
- Classification
- Visual Arts
- Movement
- Anti-apartheid movements
- Exhibition
- Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
- On View
- NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Culture/Fourth Floor, 4 052
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Topic
- African American
- Abstraction
- Africa
- Art
- Politics
- Segregation
- Record ID
- nmaahc_2012.80
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd54da84404-ccf0-4d32-9d22-1ba20eb89cf7
