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Women
Historiography has excluded a large number of actors for different reasons. This is the case of the four women represented here. Her experience gives an idea of how some women were treated around the world.
Sarah Baartman
Paint markers and watercolor on paper, 59.5 x 42 cm, 2021
Sarah Baartman (1775 – 1815, South Africa) grew up working on Dutch farms in the Cape Colony. Her birth name is unknown. In 1810, a Scotsman who supplied animals to British circuses took her to London to exhibit her because of her “exotic” morphology (wide hips). She was exhibited in London, in Ireland and then at the Palais Royal in Paris. Georges Cuvier dissected her after her death. Her anatomical studies bear witness to the racist theories (racial typologies) of the time. She interpreted her face as evidence of monkey features and placed her organs in formalin. They ended up at the Musée de l’Homme. In 1994, Nelson Mandela asked France to return her remains. This finally happened in 2002, after numerous legal disputes.
Sarah Baartman (1775 – 1815, South Africa) grew up working on Dutch farms in the Cape Colony. Her birth name is unknown. In 1810, a Scotsman who supplied animals to British circuses took her to London to exhibit her because of her “exotic” morphology (wide hips). She was exhibited in London, in Ireland and then at the Palais Royal in Paris. Georges Cuvier dissected her after her death. Her anatomical studies bear witness to the racist theories (racial typologies) of the time. She interpreted her face as evidence of monkey features and placed her organs in formalin. They ended up at the Musée de l’Homme. In 1994, Nelson Mandela asked France to return her remains. This finally happened in 2002, after numerous legal disputes.
Take out your rosaries
Paint markers, collage and acrylic on paper, 59.5 x 42 cm, 2021
Krotoa
Paint markers and watercolor on paper, 59.5 x 42cm, 2021
Niece of a Khoi chief, Krotoa (1643 – 1674, South Africa) was a servant in the family of a commander of the Dutch colony of Cape Town from the age of 11. She learned Dutch and Portuguese, received a Christian education and was baptized Eva. She served as an interpreter and negotiator between the Dutch and the Khoi. The Dutch considered her too devoted to her uncle, while he saw her as a traitor. She married a Danish explorer and traveled to Europe. After the death of her husband, she began drinking, prostituting herself, and expressing bitterness toward the Dutch. In 1669 she was banished to Robben Island for immorality and died five years later.
Krotoa was considered “mother of the Rainbow Nation” but also an instrument of warning against miscegenation (for not having adopted European moral principles).
Niece of a Khoi chief, Krotoa (1643 – 1674, South Africa) was a servant in the family of a commander of the Dutch colony of Cape Town from the age of 11. She learned Dutch and Portuguese, received a Christian education and was baptized Eva. She served as an interpreter and negotiator between the Dutch and the Khoi. The Dutch considered her too devoted to her uncle, while he saw her as a traitor. She married a Danish explorer and traveled to Europe. After the death of her husband, she began drinking, prostituting herself, and expressing bitterness toward the Dutch. In 1669 she was banished to Robben Island for immorality and died five years later.
Krotoa was considered “mother of the Rainbow Nation” but also an instrument of warning against miscegenation (for not having adopted European moral principles).
The Malinche
Paint markers, acrylic and watercolor on paper, 59.5 x 42 cm, 2021
Daughter of chiefs, Malinche (1500 – ?, Mexico) was sold to slave traders and then to a Mayan chief. She was subsequently handed over to the Spaniard Hernán Cortés and baptized Marina. She became his advisor, interpreter and wife. Her first child is one of the first mestizos of the conquest.
Historiography considered her in turn a perfidious slave who helped Christianize America, a brave victim of culture clash, a woman trapped between two cultures or even a symbolic mother of the mestizo Mexican people. Octavio Paz describes her as “the mother of Mexican culture, a product of rape and abuse.”
Daughter of chiefs, Malinche (1500 – ?, Mexico) was sold to slave traders and then to a Mayan chief. She was subsequently handed over to the Spaniard Hernán Cortés and baptized Marina. She became his advisor, interpreter and wife. Her first child is one of the first mestizos of the conquest.
Historiography considered her in turn a perfidious slave who helped Christianize America, a brave victim of culture clash, a woman trapped between two cultures or even a symbolic mother of the mestizo Mexican people. Octavio Paz describes her as “the mother of Mexican culture, a product of rape and abuse.”
Pocahontas
Paint markers and watercolor on paper, 59.5 x 42cm, 2021
Pocahontas, (1595 – 1617, United States) daughter of the Powhatan chief, was taken hostage by the English. They changed her name, dressed her as a European, converted her and married her. She and her husband traveled to the English court. She was treated like “a princess of the New World” and displayed as an object of curiosity. Pocahontas, unhappy, did not adapt to this life and died of an unknown illness. She was buried in England, far from her hometown.
Pocahontas, (1595 – 1617, United States) daughter of the Powhatan chief, was taken hostage by the English. They changed her name, dressed her as a European, converted her and married her. She and her husband traveled to the English court. She was treated like “a princess of the New World” and displayed as an object of curiosity. Pocahontas, unhappy, did not adapt to this life and died of an unknown illness. She was buried in England, far from her hometown.
Sorority
Markers on paper, 50.5 x 70 cm, 2022
Women have been educated to compete, to distrust, envy or judge each other, internalizing patriarchal double morals. Why are we afraid to rejoice and let ourselves be contagious by the strength of other women?
Women have been educated to compete, to distrust, envy or judge each other, internalizing patriarchal double morals. Why are we afraid to rejoice and let ourselves be contagious by the strength of other women?
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