<I>Separate But Equal: Apartheid</I>
date: label: Date
content: 1987
name: label: Created by
content: Howardena Doreen Pindell, American, born 1943
notes: label: Caption
content: Howardena Pindell created Separate But Equal in protest of apartheid—South Africa’s rigid, racially segregated caste system created by the country’s white citizens. It established and maintained wealth and privilege while depriving the black majority of their civil, economic, and political rights. The system’s implications are revealed through the use of color, words, and found objects. In the white section, Pindell incorporates words such as Barbaric, Parasitic, and Profit; in the middle section, terms include Endless Labor, Pass Book, and 0 Votes; the lower , ripped from and tenuously reconnected to the rest of the canvas, contains the words Malnutrition, Death, and Torture. Each section, combined with the rhinestones, nails, and painted gold frame, deftly reveals the tension, danger, and violence prevalent during this dark era.
label: Description
content: A mixed media artwork referencing apartheid in South Africa. The work features a black and white canvas studded with rhinestones; a white strip forms a horizontal plane atop a black field. The canvas has been ripped and then sewn together, leaving a diagonal gash along the right side of the work. Words have been superimposed on the black field using black vinyl tape: Apartheid, Camps, The Mines, Disappearances, Pass Book, Endless Labor, 0 Votes, Detention, Interrogation, SOWETO. Words have been added to the white part of the canvas using white vinyl tape: Indifference, Separate State, Cruel, Profit, The Bomb, Barbaric, Killers, Comfort, Parasitic, Apartheid. There is a wooden frame around the plaster with nails protruding out from it.
place: label: Place depicted
content: South Africa, Africa
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Abstraction
label: Topic
content: Africa
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Politics
label: Topic
content: Segregation
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
label: Movement
content: Anti-apartheid movements
label: Exhibition
content: Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
label: On View
content: NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Culture/Fourth Floor, 4 052
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2012.80
objectType: label: Type
content: multimedia works
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © 1987 Howardena Pindell
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: acrylic, pressure-sensitive tape, rhinestone, wood, metal, silicone, zircon, canvas
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (painting): 24 × 21 1/2 × 3 in. (61 × 54.6 × 7.6 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (frame): 30 × 28 × 7 in. (76.2 × 71.1 × 17.8 cm)