Samantha Kilkens, i420646 Cultural Studies I Sarah Baartman and the Politics of Looking The expropriation and appropriation

n 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 Besters statue of Sarah Baartman. The statue, made by a South African artist, was put in the library of the University of Cape Towns 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 Sarahs 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 Baartman is about representation is made abundantly clear in The Life and Times of Sara Baartman as well. At the beginning of the documentary a voice-over observes that Sarah was both a servant and a great attraction, she had been a woman and an ape and more of these distinctions are mentioned. The way she was represented at that time made her what she was then. When she was represented as the Hottentot Venus, she was represented as being an 1

Samantha Kilkens, i420646 exotic freak; she was the visual representation of racial inferiority and savage sexuality. (Maseko, 1998) As mentioned before, representation is the key word in this essay. The reason why I do not agree with the aforementioned statement is based on meaning. The imagery of Sarah Baartman, the drawings and cartoons, when she was but on display in freak-shows was meant to draw attention to her. Some with the intention to mock the people inspecting Sarah like the cartoon with the dog sniffing on one inspecting man, some to just draw attention to her freakish appearance with exaggerated proportions of her buttocks. New images of Sarah Baartman in contemporary culture are made for different reasons. For example, Willie Besters statue of Sarah Baartman was made with the intent to raise awareness about the dehumanizing aspects of the colonial history of South Africa. (Buikema, 2009) The difficulty that arises with representation is that it is not about what the artist intended to say with the work because this intention might not come across. It is semiotics that gives us the tool to analyse the meaning of, for example, works of art. Semiotics is a theory of signs. It studies cultural sign processes, the relation between signifier and signified which is fixed for a certain time or period and place. The signifier is the form, whether it is language, a painting or a statue, and the signified is the mental concept that accompanies it. (Buikema, 2009) In the case of Sarah Baartman, the image of her is the signifier and the feeling and ideas it brings about is the signified. For the students that did not agree with the placement of Willie Besters statue, it was the signified that made them feel like that. The intention of the artist was fully honourable, however, what he intended to come across did not come across to these people. For the ethics of representation it is important to see whether it is possible to represent something or someone without creating negative ideas and feelings because of it. Sarah Baartman was exploited during her life and it is now key to see whether she can be represented in a way that does not reproduce the sexism and racism she encountered in her life. An example of an image of Sarah Baartman that does represent her in an ethical manner is the statue by Willie Bester. As argued before, at the material level of the statue it is made clear that the relation between signifiers and signifieds is ethical. The recycled material, which stands for the many contexts her body circulated in during her life. The use of iron indicates the metal industry and motor technology, which is traditionally a masculine domain. And probably the most 2

Samantha Kilkens, i420646 important connotation, as mentioned before as well, the recycled material shows that there is, and was, absolutely nothing natural about Sarah Baartmans body. (Buikema, 2009) Images of people like Sarah Baartman are shown so that we do not forget the tragic history of these people. The sculpture of Sarah Baartman made by Willie Bester was made with the intent to raise awareness for the dehumanizing practices in South African colonial history. To be remembered of history is and important to understand our current situations, and important to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. The problem of using images that would absolutely not offend anyone is that they do not say everything. For example, an image of only Sarah Baartmans face, without any further explanation of who she was, would not remember people of her horrifying history. However, Willie Besters sculpture is made to the likeness of the plaster cast made of Sarahs body, with an exaggerated voluminous behind. The fact that the sculpture shows you a dehumanized image of a woman, with the exaggerated features Sarah was put on to display for in the first place, it is immediately clear that the sculpture comments on the horrible practices during colonial times. The point here is that images that do not have the intention of representing something will not represent something. With the colonial history of South Africa, an image of Sarah Baartman that is not intended to represent this colonial history, will not. I do agree that images should represent Sarah Baartman and the history of colonial South Africa in the most ethical way possible but without missing the meaning of the image in the first place. As Sarah Baartman has become an icon for the horrifying colonial practices in South Africa, the images of her need to represent and have this meaning of remembering people of the colonial past. (Buikema, 2009) The fact that Sarah Baartman was displayed in freak-shows in Europe is one of the practices of this colonial past. Because she had different genitalia and overall bodily appearance than the general European woman, she was put on display. Taking out Sarah Baartmans specific body type (exaggerated or not) takes away the meaning of the image. For these reasons it is not a good idea not to create new images of her because some feel that it repeats and continues the past exploitation and humiliation of her body. With every image there is, people will always attach different meanings to it. Take for example the Hitler museum in Berlin, as most see this museum as a remembrance of the ghastly practices during World War II, some (like for example 3

Samantha Kilkens, i420646 neo-Nazis) might see the museum as an honouring of Hitler. The same goes for images of Sarah Baartman. Many would see these images and be reminded of the colonial past of South Africa, while others would only see a continuing exploitation of Sarah Baartmans body. As has been shown in this essay, I do not agree with the statement 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. Representation and meaning have played a key role in this discussion but as I, and Rosemarie Buikema, found, it does not lead to the necessity of not creating new images of Sarah Baartman. Using semiotics to look at the statue of Sarah Baartman created by Willie Bester, you can only arrive at the conclusion that this image of Sarah Baartman is an unethical one. Nonetheless, I do agree, as mentioned before, that there is a need to create an image in the most ethical way possible, without taking away the meaning of image. Semiotics can than be used to create a well-argued position with respect to the ethics of every specific representation. The statement, however, is stretched too far. As an ending note I would like to rephrase the statement to a statement that I would agree with: It is not a good idea to create unethical new images of Sarah Baartman, because each unethical new image repeats and continues the past exploitation and humiliation of her body.

Samantha Kilkens, i420646 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.