Sarah Baartman - Cultural Studies
Cultural Studies I – Sarah Baartman and the Politics of Looking
“The expropriation and appropriation of Sarah Baartman by the colonial and capitalist gaze has lasted long enough. It is not a good idea to create new images of her, because each new image repeats and continues the past exploitation and humiliation of her body.”
In the article The arena of imaginings: Sarah Bartmann and the ethics of representation, Rosemarie Buikema looks into the controversy around Willie Bester’s statue of Sarah Baartman. The statue, made by a South African artist, was put in the library of the University of Cape Town’s Science and Engineering Department. To my surprise, the exhibition of the statue in a Science and Engineering Department offended many of the students. They felt that Sarah’s body was again subject to scientific interrogation, while Sarah, during her life, refused to cooperate with the scientists that wanted to examine her. (Buikema, 2009) Many of these students would agree with the aforementioned statement. However, in this essay I will explain why I do not agree with the statement that the new images of Sarah Baartman repeat and continue the past exploitation and humiliation of her body. In making this argument, it is important to understand that the concept of representation is core to this argument. Representation is here used as “the use of language and images to create meaning about the world around us.” (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001, p. 12) Images of Sarah Baartman are used to create meaning. The statue created by Willie Bester is made up of recycled iron matter. The material brings to mind the different contexts in which her body was circulated during her life. (Buikema, 2009) There are many meanings that can be connected to this statue. The connotation that there is nothing natural about the body of Sarah Baartman, like was the case when she was paraded in freak-shows around Europe, seems the most striking one. That the case of Sarah
“The expropriation and appropriation of Sarah Baartman by the colonial and capitalist gaze has lasted long enough. It is not a good idea to create new images of her, because each new image repeats and continues the past exploitation and humiliation of her body.”
In the article The arena of imaginings: Sarah Bartmann and the ethics of representation, Rosemarie Buikema looks into the controversy around Willie Bester’s statue of Sarah Baartman. The statue, made by a South African artist, was put in the library of the University of Cape Town’s Science and Engineering Department. To my surprise, the exhibition of the statue in a Science and Engineering Department offended many of the students. They felt that Sarah’s body was again subject to scientific interrogation, while Sarah, during her life, refused to cooperate with the scientists that wanted to examine her. (Buikema, 2009) Many of these students would agree with the aforementioned statement. However, in this essay I will explain why I do not agree with the statement that the new images of Sarah Baartman repeat and continue the past exploitation and humiliation of her body. In making this argument, it is important to understand that the concept of representation is core to this argument. Representation is here used as “the use of language and images to create meaning about the world around us.” (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001, p. 12) Images of Sarah Baartman are used to create meaning. The statue created by Willie Bester is made up of recycled iron matter. The material brings to mind the different contexts in which her body was circulated during her life. (Buikema, 2009) There are many meanings that can be connected to this statue. The connotation that there is nothing natural about the body of Sarah Baartman, like was the case when she was paraded in freak-shows around Europe, seems the most striking one. That the case of Sarah
Bibliography: Buikema, R. (2009). The arena of imagings. Sarah Bartmann and the ethics of representation. In R. Buikema, & I. van der Tuin, Doing gender in media, art and culture (pp. 70-84). London/New York: Routledge. Maseko, Z. (Director). (1998). The life and times of Sara Baartman (Film). South Africa: distributed by Icarus Films, New York. Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of looking. Images, power, and politics. In M. Sturken, & L. Cartwright, Practices of looking. An introduction to visual culture (first edition) (pp. 10-43). Oxford: Oxford University Press.