Kim Siebert (b. 1958, South African)
What did your mother ever tell you about the Hard Edge School?
1986
Photo collage on board with painted frame
Iziko SANG collection
Kim Siebert, a South African white woman, created this work in a series of collages exploring how modernism excluded and objectified women. Siebert made this series in the 1980s, serving as an early example of feminist art in South Africa. This domestic scene exemplifies public perception of female creativity as restricted to the home through activities such as interior design. Siebert references the male gaze through the phallic imagery of binoculars and pillars, critiquing the objectification of women in mediums such as magazines and films. Siebert says she hopes to focus “on personal history, cultural heritage and context” as well as “what it means to be perceived and to perceive the world as a woman artist in Africa.” Siebert’s inclusion of isiXhosa and isiZulu basketry and beadwork live up to these goals, as these patterns suggest that the diminishing of female art also applies to black, working-class women.
