Art Blog

Tracey Rose exhibits at the 2019 Singapore Biennale

The South African artist is presenting a commissioned series of rarely seen works on paper. Known for her photography, video installations and performance art, Tracey Rose has consistently interrogated post-apartheid and post-colonial social histories in her practice, with identity and gender as sites of discussion.

Hard Black on Cotton - a composite of painterly and scriptural markings pressed in varying intensities by HB pencil on white cotton paper - is one of her rare works on paper. It reflects on Africa's history and historiography while gesturing to the artist's autobiography and family background.

This new commission revisits the European colonial grab for power in the African continent, and as Rose's scribbles increase in density, she reiterates Africa as a land perpetually divided in volumes of reparation, restitution - and unlearning.

For more information, visit www.singaporebiennale.org.