Shining Through the Shadows ,
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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)
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